The reign of the mycota , or mycètes , is not other than that of the fungi , i.e. mushrooms . The Mycologie is the science which studies them. Approximately 90.000 mushroom species were described to date.

Popular definition

In French language, word mushroom (“which comes in the fields”), evokes for the majority of people these “funny of plants” or fructifications , visible with the naked eye (what excludes the majority from the species of the fungic reign, old the micromycètes ):
  • more or less fleshy (as evoke it the names of Bolet , Cèpe , etc), with surprisingly fast growth, appearing and disappearing suddenly, of varied forms and sometimes provocantes, often provided with a foot and a hat (from where their name of stool of clamping plate, “English toadstool”).
  • or more woody and coriaces, invading slowly the Trunk S and branches of the Tree S, in the form of small consoles (“seats of Japanese monkeys”), often vermin because attacking wood, but sometimes also more invaluable, like the “prehistoric lighter” said Amadouvier , and the officinal , powerful Agaric Hemostatic still used in Chinese Medicine traditional.

Fugacious and polymorphic, delectable or mortals, they at all times fascinated, intrigued or inspired by the extreme feelings, causing sometimes:

  • worship or fear, as testify to it their use in the religions Animiste S and the Chamanisme, as well as the many pejorative expressions (“Ronds witch” or “rounds of fairies”, “stools of clamping plates”, “pholiote devastator”, “Trompette of dead the”), or tinted erotism (“Phallus impudic”, “Pénis of dog”),
  • a food lively interest, that it is like LMBO nullus commoners (“Viande of poor the”, “Bolet of the herdsmen”) or of the prestigious mets (“Amanita of Césars”, “Tricholome of the knights”, “royal Boletus”, “noble Truffle”, etc),
  • temptation to use the powerful chimism of certain species at ends of Doping or therapeutic (entering the composition of Philter S like the nectar of the ancient Greece, the magic approach of the African doep, etc), even like Poison used in some famous assassinations.
  • a rational and potential danger, consolidated by the nightmarish visions of the epidemic S of Ergotisme of formerly, the intoxications traditional mortals still rather frequent today ( Amanita phalloid …), appearance of new syndromes (erythermalgie caused by the Clitocybe amoenolens ) and sometimes even unexplainable when they accuse edible goods like the Bidaou ( equestrian Tricholoma and consorts).

However, this popular definition omits the majority of the mushrooms, which are of microscopic size, such as the rust S, the Levure S and the Moisissure S, among which the most invaluable agents of the human consumption are, but also frightening parasite S of the cultures, animals and of the man.

Transported in Natural science, mystery remained partly, as show it the first botanical classifications which left them placed a long time in the Cryptogame S or plants with hidden reproduction , mainly because of the discretion and the complexity of their mode of Reproduction.

Extreme mushrooms

The mushrooms all are not microscopic, far from there. The fossils of Prototaxites are nowadays classified like old mushrooms… from two to nine meters height, for one meter of circumference: they was the greatest terrestrial organizations of the Dévonien and of the Silurien, 350 million years ago.

Nowadays, it is also a mushroom which holds the record moreover great person living in the world (although the concept of organization is debatable in this case): a Mycélium of the species Armillaria ostoyae covering nearly 9 km (880 hectares) was identified in 2000 in the Oregon, by tests of DNA. The preceding record going back to 1992 was only of 600 hectares…

Mycologic definition

Formerly classified with the Alga S in the plants “without broken into leaf branches”: Cryptogam S, Thallophyte S, nonchlorophyllian, they constitutes now a autonomous reign, the fifth reign or fungic reign Latin '' fungus '' = mushroom.

Based on that of the Vegetable , the definition of the fungic organization is initially negative: deprived of stems, sheets and roots. It is made of a vegetative apparatus called Thalle, without fabric S functional nor bodies differentiated, made up from vegetative cells lengthened and partitioned named Hyphe S. These hyphas generally join in Mycélium, kind of felting difficult to see with the naked eye and generally impossible to identify in the state. Sometimes, the thallus is a simple tube without partitions, one speaks then about cœnocytic structure and siphon .

Their reproduction is very discrete and of capricious appearance, sometimes asexual, sometimes sexuée, by means of special cells, the Spore S. the mushroom not producing a Fleur S, it cannot be a fruit or Carpophore with the botanical direction, also the apparatus carrying the Spore S and allowing the reproduction is today indicated by “sporophore” .

At higher mushrooms, this apparatus (often constituted of a foot and a hat and then called mushroom by the commun run) is particularly developed, the remainder of the mushroom (the Mycélium) being underground or in the heart of wood or the host animal and thus invisible. The “lower” mushrooms can also produce sporophores, but those remain microscopic. The majority of mushrooms have a structure Pluricellulaire S, but there are notable exceptions: thus the Levure S are Unicellulaire S.

Definition of the fungic reign

Are classified in the reign of the Fungi all the organizations meeting the following conditions:
  • They are Eucaryote S (organizations having of the cells and whose Chromosome S are locked up in a core).
  • They are Hétérotrophe S with respect to the Carbone, which they must thus find in their immediate environment. Incompetents to use the solar energy, they absorb many carbonaceous molecules manufactured by other living beings.
  • They are absorbotrophes, being nourished by absorption (decomposition) and not by ingestion (animal character). Deprived of roots, stems and sheets, their vegetative apparatus, called Mycelium, diffuse, is ramified and tubular, consists of tangled up fine filaments, the Hyphe S, with apical growth, allowing the nutrition by absorption. In nature, the majority of higher mushrooms have recourse to the Mycorhize, which is a Symbiose between the roots of a plant and the Mycélium. The roots of the plant produce the Glucose (sugar) for mushroom, this one not knowing to produce it itself (lack of Chlorophylle). The mycelium gets in return water and Rock salt inaccessible to the roots of the plant.
  • They reproduce by Spore S not whipped or exceptionally with only one Flagelle (characteristic making that the Mildiou, to two whip, is not regarded today as a mushroom). Actually, only one group of Mycètes, the only ones which is watery today, presents mobile cells (whipped): the group of the Chytridiomycète S.
  • They manufacture substances which are clean for them (Tréhalose, Mannitol…), their wall contains Callose, Hémicellulose and Chitine (close to the chitin of the insects, animal character, whereas the plants have a cellulose wall). Their first glucidic Polymère is the Glycogène.
  • They work out structures, forms very variable, the Sporophore S, able to produce a considerable number of spores Haploïde S after a more or less long phase with Dicaryon;
  • It do not have sexual differentiation (perittogamy) and present a dicaryophase developed enough between the Plasmogamie and the Caryogamie.

Classification

There exists a very significant number of species of mushrooms and one estimates that in 2007 less than 10% of these species are known and identified.

History

The mushrooms were classified in the past like belonging to the Vegetable kingdom because of presence of a cellular Paroi and several similarities between their cycles of reproduction and those of the algae. In 1969, Whittaker classified them in a reign besides that of the Mycota on the basis of several special character like the absence of Chlorophylle and Amidon.

One of the most widespread classifications is that of Geoffrey Clough Ainsworth (1905-1998) and Guy Richard Bisby (1889-1958) in their Dictionary off Fungi (1971), although it today is deeply altered (9th edition in 2001) one still finds the old versions of this classification in certain works.

Old Classification of Ainsworth:

  • Reign of Fungi
    • Division of Myxomycota (plasmodes present)
        • Acrasiomycetes
        • Myxomycetes
        • Plasmodiophoromycetes
    • Division of Eumycota (do not present plasmode)
      • Subdivision of Mastigomycotina (present mobile spores - zoospores-)
        • Chytridiomycetes
        • Hyphochytridiomycetes
        • Oomycetes
      • Subdivision of Deuteromycotina
      • Subdivision of Zygomycotina
      • Subdivision of Ascomycotina
      • Subdivision of Basidiomycotina

This first reign of mushroom included/understood a certain number of organizations which, thereafter, were replaced in other reigns:

  • the Oomycètes and Hyphochytridiomycètes which are now classified in the Straménopile S.
  • the Myxomycota which are now classified in several groups of Protiste S.

Current classification

The current classification of mushrooms distinguishes five divisions (or junctions):
  • Chytridiomycota , or Chytridiomycète S: watery species whose spores carry one whips. One regards them as the ancestors of all other mushrooms.
  • Zygomycota , or Zygomycète S: species with not whipped spores from which the cells are not separated by partitions.
  • Ascomycota , or Ascomycète S: the spores are produced inside bags (asque S) and are projected, with maturity, outside by opening of the asque one.
  • Basidiomycota , or Basidiomycete S: the spores develop at the end of specialized cells (the Baside S) and are dispersed by the wind with maturity.
  • Glomeromycota , formerly classified in Zycomycota they are now regarded as component a division with share.

Phylogenetic classification

The first studies of portions of DNA and chromosomes tend to propose a new classification, known as systematic Classification of the mushrooms (confused term because already used for classification traditional Systématique), and coincides more and more with the phylogenetic Classification, therefore less and less with morphological classification.

Three modes of nutrition of mushrooms

Thanks to their Chlorophyl, the majority of the plants can fix the Carbonic gas air by Photosynthèse. One says that they are Autotrophe S. It is not the case of the mushrooms, Hétérotrophe S, which must manage as they can to get the Carbone necessary to their life. They exploit for that their immediate environment, absorbing the organic matters in three different ways:

  • Saprophyte : The mushrooms can push in dead organic matter or in decomposition (died sheets, vegetable or animal remains, excrements): they are called saprophytes. One often finds them in forest, where this food, in the form of Humus, exists in great quantity. While thus degrading the died organic matter, the mushrooms saprophytes give to the provision of the other organizations, plants and animals, of the essential biogenic salts again assimilable (Azote, Phosphore, Carbone). They take part thus in the Recyclage of the organic matter.

  • Symbiotic : the Mycorhize S are mushrooms which live into perfect Symbiose with other autotrophic living beings, so much so that one cannot live without the different one. Thus, the Lichen S are associations of mushrooms (primarily Ascomycète S) but also some Basidiomycète S) and of Cyanobactérie S or green algas. The mushroom provides to the alga protection, water and rock salt and, in return, this one supplies it out of glucids, products of photosynthesis. There exist cases of symbiosis with animals: the mushrooms help thus Fourmi S and Termite S to digest cellulose.

  • Parasite : The mushrooms can also benefit from the alive organic matter. They are parasitic and live at the expense of an living being on their own account. Often pathogenic, they cause diseases and result in sometimes the death of their hosts: other mushrooms, algae, plants or animals. The Anthracnose S, the Mildew S, the Oïdium S, the rusts are cryptogamic diseases plants.

In the man and the animals of the Mycosis S like the Dermatophytose due to Trichophyton , the Candidose S due to the yeasts Candida , the Aspergillosis S due to mushroom of the kind Aspergillus , the Cryptococcosis S of Cryptococcus , the Tinea, the Lily of the valley, the Pneumonia, etc are diseases due to such parasitic mushrooms.

Ecological role

Although they pass often unperceived, the mushrooms are present in all the types of environment on Ground and play a central role in many ecosystem, in particular as a symbion of the trees, but especially as décomposeurs buckling the cycle of carbon and many elements. With the Bacterium S, they are the décomposeurs who take part more in degradation of the Organic matter and with the production of Humus in the terrestrial ecosystems and play a central role in the biogeochemical Cycles and the food chains. Certain mushrooms are active in moist environments and watery. The decomposition of the vegetable organic matter by mushrooms is a crucial step of the Cycle of carbon.
Les mushrooms is a major source of food for many animals, invertebrates (ex: certain species of ants which cultivate them) but also some Mammifère S of which for example squirrel and the Brown bear.

Some mushrooms, like the Zoopagale S, are Prédateur S of Nématode S which they capture by means of ring or of adhesive traps.

In addition, the mushrooms can cause biodeteriorations which can be harmful as at the time of contamination and organoleptic deteriorations of food products or during degradation of various products as wood, paper, of the textiles, paintings, the stone, metals and even glass.

Many species strongly bioconcentrent the Heavy metals and the Radionucléide S, contributing to give in circulation of metals which were temporarily trapped in organizations animal or vegetable, or naturally present in the ground on certain metalliferous sites.

State of the populations, threats

As for many other species, much of mushroom species are in regression. There exists in a growing number of country and areas of the red lists of threatened fungic species.

As example the red list of mushrooms threatened of Switzerland (limited to higher mushrooms), updated by the Swiss federal Office of the environment in 2007 alarm on the fact that on 2956 species and subspecies by the way reliable and sufficient data exist, 937 species (32%) were classified as threatened by the federal Institute of research on the forest, snow and landscape (WSL). A species is extinct, 3% are “in critical danger of extinction” , 12% are “in danger” and 17% are vulnerable. 63% are regarded as not threatened, but the state of the population of 2004 other species (40% of the total of known higher mushrooms in Switzerland) could not be evaluated, for lack of data. In all logic, the most threatened species are those whose mediums have most quickly or most strongly regressed (mushrooms of the meadows and pastures thin, the marshes and been dependant on the deadwood). The species are also considered more threatened in altitude where they are fewer. (on the 937 threatened species, 15% are forest mushrooms. It is probably less than in other adjoining countries thanks to list red. That is certainly due to a sylviculture more “close to the nature” (of type Prosilva) which knew to preserve relative a Naturalité to the forests and large Deadwood. Two French studies showed that fungicides, several days per annum were in the north of France present in very significant quantity in the rain and the air, so much so that one cannot speak any more about traces. Many species of Lichen S also strongly regressed, even if those which were indicating of acid pollution reappear.

Edible or toxic?

One to date identified a score of mushrooms mortals in the world, about thirty excellent edible and a great mushroom mass inedible because too bitter, bitter, nauseous, coriaces, fibrous or too tiny. As there does not exist any reliable trick to decide between them, it is initially important to know dangerous mushrooms to only limit itself then to edible sure and tasty. To learn how to identify mushrooms nothing the exit is worth on the ground with an expert. The Liste of toxic and edible mushrooms can be consulted in your pharmacist (in France), or on the site of the mycologic Company of your area.

Two types of toxicity are to be considered

  1. the intrinsic toxicity of certain species related to organic toxins produced by mushroom, which cause for example Hallucination S, abdominal pains, nauseas, bloody Diarrhée, colics, paralyzes being able to lead to dead (see the details on the page Mycotoxicologie) the
  2. the toxicity induced by the strong capacity of certain mushrooms (of which by edible and sought species) with bioaccumuler some toxic Heavy metals (of which mercury, Plomb, Cadmium, Sélénium, and, with a less degree Cobalt, Nickel and Chromium (chromium VI is very toxic). The cadmium rates measured in mushrooms of certain areas where the ground is naturally rich in cadmium or polluted by cadmium anthropic are sufficient to pose serious problems of nephrotoxicity (attacks renal system), even exceptionally to kill by acute Empoisonnement. These metal amounts are to be added to those which are also introduced (mercury, cadmium.) in certain fish. The exposure to often weak amounts with averages of radionuclide via the mushroom exposure has effects which still are very discussed for low dose, but the studies which followed the Catastrophe of Tchernobyl showed that the mushroom was one of the first sources of radioactivity in the food in the zones of repercussions of the cloud.

In the event of poisoning, the doctor can confuse these two types of intoxications .

The occasional contamination and the poisoning of animals such as cows horses, goats sheep by heavy metals could partly be due to the mushroom consumption, including underground species with fructification, which pass unperceived, such as the Truffe of the stag or the truffle S sought by the Sanglier S, the squirrel S or some Micromammifère S.

As recalled by Didier Michelot of CNRS, the possibility of serious poisonings, distinct from those produced by organic toxins, and which had with the consumption of specimens belonging to the kinds (Agaric custom, Pleurotus, etc…) is not excluded because of their capacity to concentrate toxic metals (of which Cadmium, Plomb, mercury.) with amounts much higher than the toxicological thresholds.

It is recommended to avoid mushrooms collected in the cities, with the accesses of the road main roads (of which highways), in and around the polluted zones, in the zones where the repercussions of Tchernobyl concentrated and in the old red zones or others polluted by the wars. In some countries, and on several occasions, official publications informed the individuals of the possibility of poisoning caused by heavy metals in mushrooms. Metals or the radioactivity (due to the Césium of Tchernobyl for example) can spend several decades (20 years for cesium which goes down in the ground at a rate of approximately 1cm/an) before reaching the zone of prospection of mushrooms. Sometimes, it is necessary time that the tree bioaccumulator pushes (decades at centuries) before the mushroom does not break up the Lignine of it by accumulating the poisons which accumulated there. The majority of the rich countries impose a control on imported mushrooms, but the wild mushrooms are not the subject of a thorough follow-up.

As example and starting from the analyzes made by D Michelot (CNRS) in France, one can retain that a typical meal made up of 200g (average portion) of Agaricus arvensis fresh, very appreciated species of the cooks, contained in France 2 Mg of Cadmium, that is to say 100 times the amount permitted by the authorities of public health.

Similar risks are posed by other mushrooms of which some sought by the amateurs:

Agaricus silvicola (30,6 cadmium ppm),
Agaricus bresadolianus (10,7 cadmium ppm) and, moindrement;
Suillus variegatus (4 cadmium ppm).

The Agaricales accumulate the greatest quantities.

The highest content of mercury is detected at

Suillus variegatus (94 ppm)
Agaricus aestivalis (87,4 ppm),
Agaricus arvensis (84,1 ppm),
Pleurotus eryngii (82 ppm).

The Plomb was detected atvery high rates at

Agaricus bresadolanus (52,2 ppm),
Morchella esculenta (44,2 ppm),
Fistulina hepatica (42,7 ppm),
Clitocybe nebularis (43 ppm),
Leccinum crocipodium (Boletus) (42,1 ppm).

It is in addition probable that the mushrooms Symbiote S play a part in the accumulation of metals in wood.

Uses

The mushrooms collected in forest are to be regarded as a forest Produit, other that wood for the evaluation of the forest productions of FAO.

  • the edible and fleshy species are used at food ends, in particular in Soupe S, Sauté are, in Omelet, crackling (Tenpura) or in Fricassée.
  • They often contain very complex organic molecules, more or less toxic.
The Pénicilline and of many Médicament S are drawn from mushrooms.
  • Of others can have virtues Psychotrope S ( to see the detailed article Champignon hallucinogen ), containing substances known as Psychédélique S.

Cultivated mushrooms

If the culture of mushrooms is attested as of the Antiquité, few species in Europe, in spite of the various progress made during the 20th century, appear interesting for a culture of type the industrial or semi-industrial. The largest market share (fifth rank of exports in France) is occupied by the cultivated mushroom ( Agaricus bisporus ). On the other hand in the Far East, the cultivated species multiply with the passing of years, with mushrooms such as the Shiitaké , the éringî (Japanese name!), the wood hen, the collybie with foot of velvet or the black mushroom. The culture of mushrooms is called the Myciculture (not to be confused with the Mycoculture, a farming technique used in laboratory for the mycètes of medical interest or Vétérinaire).

Principal cultivated species

  • Agaricus bisporus - cultivated mushroom
  • Lentinula edodes - Shiitaké (椎茸 cultivated with large scales in the Far East)
  • Pleurotus ostreatus - Pleurote out of oyster and other close species
  • Pleurotus eryngii - Pleurote of the panicaut, éringi cultivated in Japan (エリンギー)
  • Grifola frondosa - Hen of wood the maitaké cultivated in Japan (舞茸マイタケ)
  • Hypsizygus tessulatus - buna-shimeji ブナシメジ rare in Europe, cultivated in Japan.
  • Auricularia auricula-judae - Ear of Judas, 木耳 the “black mushroom” of the Chinese kitchen.
  • Flammulina velutipes - Collybie with foot of velvet énokidaké (エノキダケ the primordiums are cultivated in bottles in Japan, their feet very lengthened are then very tender).
  • Volvariella volvacea - Asian Volvaire (袋竹)
  • Agrocybe aegerita - Pholiote of the poplar (柳松茸ヤナギマツタケ)
  • Pholiota nameko - Pholiote Asian naméko (舐子ナメコ)

Production

They are food mushrooms without reference to Espèce.

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