There’s fungus among us: Rainy season brings out Southern Utah mushrooms

CEDAR CITY — After consistent monsoons, many Southern Utahns have encountered all sorts of critters including scorpions and sun spiders. But in the mountains, an entirely different lifeform clings to rough tree bark or bursts from the dark, rich soil: mushrooms.

Mushrooms found in Dixie National Forest, Utah, Aug. 19, 2022 | Photo by Alysha Lundgren, Cedar City News

September is National Mushroom Month, the Forest Service stated in a Facebook post. And Jacqualine Grant, from Southern Utah University, said it’s a “spectacular” time for mushroom viewing.

“If people are into mushrooms, this has been the absolute best year in the past 11 years that I’ve been here to see mushrooms,” Grant, an associate professor at the university’s geosciences department, said.

The rain percolates through the soil, reaching the thread-like hyphae called mycelium that make up the bulk of the organism – mushrooms are its fruit.

If one were to look beneath an old stump or log, they might see mycelial filaments, seeking to break down old wood or form new connections with plants, Grant said.

A gilled mushroom found at Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah, Aug. 26, 2022 | Photo by Alysha Lundgren, Cedar City News

Mushrooms wait for the ideal conditions to fruit, similar to a flower, Ashley Simon, president of the Mushroom Society of Utah, said. Mushrooms can go years without fruiting and then become abundant under the right circumstances.

When it’s dry, mushrooms are less common, but once the fungi get that “nice hit of moisture,” Grant said they can begin fruiting within 24 to 48 hours.

Additionally, they fruit once temperatures cool to spread their spores before winter.

Mushrooms can typically be viewed in Utah from May until the first hard freeze, Simon said.  Once the leaves turn brown and shed and the grass starts to die, it’s likely getting too cold.

When mushroom hunting, Grant said it is essential to never eat a mushroom unless it can be positively identified by someone with experience.

While many mushrooms are edible and “taste great,” others contain fatal poisons that can “wipe out your liver function.”

“It’s really really important to know what you have in your hand before you eat it,” she said.

Wood wide web

There are three main categories of mushrooms: mycorrhizal, decomposing or “death loving” and parasitic, Simon said.

A mushroom at Aspen Mirror Lake, Duck Creek, Utah, Sept. 9, 2022 | Photo by Alysha Lundgren, Cedar City News

The organisms are “active almost all of the time” underground, Grant said. Mycorrhizal mushrooms form “intimate relationships with plants, especially trees, by colonizing their roots.

The mushroom delivers nutrients and water to the tree in exchange for the sugar the tree makes via photosynthesis, something the fungus cannot do on its own. Instead, fungi obtain food from the environment “like we do,” Simon said.

A “good clue” that a mushroom is mycorrhizal is if it is seen growing in the soil like porcini, aspen bolete or fly agaric, since it is not growing on or digesting wood, Simon said.

When the fungi connect multiple trees together, the plants can chemically communicate underground through a mycorrhizal network, Grant said.

This network is known colloquially as the “wood wide web.” According to Science Focus, plants can also share nutrients and water via the network.

Mushrooms in Southern Utah

Mushrooms found in Dixie National Forest, Utah, Aug. 19, 2022 | Photo by Alysha Lundgren, Cedar City News

There are several thousand species of fungus in Utah, according to Wild About Utah.

In wetter years, it’s not uncommon to see aspen boletes, which are pored mushrooms that form a partnership with their namesake trees. Grant said that the flesh of these mushrooms reacts to pressure and if a person were to draw a line across its underside, the yellow surface would turn blue.

Shaggy mane mushrooms, or inky caps, can be seen along the roadsides, as they prefer open environments and can emerge through rocky surfaces, Grant said. These fungi are short-lived, however, as they begin transforming into dark blue or black slime to spread their spores soon after fruiting.

The red-capped, white-spotted fly agaric is common throughout the northern hemisphere and can be found throughout Utah. It is considered the most “successful” species in its genus, Grant said.

Fly agaric in Dixie National Forest, Utah, Aug. 26, 2022 | Photo by Alysha Lundgren, Cedar City News

A related mushroom, the death cap has also been spreading through the west and Simon believes she may have located one in Northern Utah. She shared images of the specimen on iNaturalist and dried it for DNA sequencing, which will be required for confirmation.

Once a mushroom has been identified as edible, all mushrooms should be cooked before eating, as well, Simon said. Their cell walls are made of the chemical compound chitin, which is also found in fingernails and insect exoskeletons.

“You’re not really getting any nutrients from eating raw mushrooms,” she said. “And many of them can make you sick because the heat of cooking helps inactivate mild toxins.”

Mushrooms found in Dixie National Forest, Utah, Aug. 19, 2022 | Photo by Alysha Lundgren, Cedar City News

For instance, morels can make a person sick if ingested uncooked, Simon said.

While there are only three known deadly mushrooms in Utah, toxins vary across species. Simon suggests saving some of the mushrooms that were eaten so they can be identified later if adverse symptoms arise, like stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhea.

“We definitely don’t recommend just going out and eating random mushrooms,” she added.

Individuals interested in mushroom picking should use multiple guidebooks or websites for fungi identification, as cross-referencing for species confirmation is essential, Simon said. Various guides take different approaches.

A mushroom found in Dixie National Forest, Utah, Aug. 19, 2022 | Photo by Alysha Lundgren, Cedar City News

The Mushroom Society of Utah offers suggested resources here.

Novices can also connect with more experienced foragers, either by working with a mentor or by joining an online community, Simon said.

Those interested can join the Mushroom Society of Utah on Facebook or join their citizen science project on iNaturalist, titled Northern Utah Funga, which aims to “document fungal biodiversity for science and conservation.” While the project focuses on Northern Utah, they’ve also accepted Southern Utahns’ submissions.

Additionally, potential viewers and pickers should procure a map and the proper Dixie National Forest permits.

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.

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