Mycophilia

“Background: mushrooms generate strong and contrasting feelings ranging from extreme aversion to intense liking. to categorize these attitudes, wasson and wasson coined the dichotomic terms ‘mycophilia’ and ‘mycophobia’ in 1957. in mesoamerica these categories have been associated to ecological regions. highland peoples are viewed as mycophiles, whereas lowland inhabitants are considered mycophobes. however, this division is based on little empirical evidence and few indicators. this study questioned whether mycophilia and mycophobia are indeed related to ecological regions through the evaluation of 19 indicators tested in the highlands and lowlands of chiapas, mexico. methods: the heterogeneity of attitudes toward mushrooms was explored in terms of ecological region and sociocultural variables. information was obtained through structured interviews in 10 communities in los altos de chiapas (highlands) and the selva lacandona (lowlands). we analyzed indicators separately through χ2 tests and multivariate techniques. the mycophilia-mycophobia index was also used in the analysis. to assess which factors better explain the distribution of attitudes, we built 11 models using the beta probability-density function and compared them with the akaike information criterion. results: most people had positive attitudes in both ecological regions. the classification and ordination analyses found two large groups comprising both highland and lowland towns. contrary to expectation if mycophilia and mycophobia were mutually exclusive, all the fitted probability distributions were bell-shaped; indicating these attitudes behave as a continuous variable. the model best supported by data included occupation and ethnicity. indigenous peasants had the highest degree of mycophilia. discussion: results suggest the studied populations tend to be mycophilic and that their attitudes are not dichotomic, but rather a gradient. most people occupied intermediate degrees of mycophilia. despite the remarkable similarity in the degree of mycophilia between ecological regions, the principle-coordinates analysis shows differences in the specific way in which people from either region establishes a cultural relationship with mushrooms. the comparison of models suggests that sociocultural variables explains the differences better than ecological regions do. the obtained results are evidence of mycophilia among lowlands inhabitants in the mayan region and of the fact that the mycophilia-mycop…”

“Background: the paper presents documentation of the traditional use of wild edible mushrooms in mazovia (33,900 km 2 ), a region of poland. methods: a total of 695 semi-structured interviews were carried out among local informants in 38 localities proportionally distributed throughout the study area (one locality approximately every 30 km), asking which mushrooms they collected and how. the species utilized were identified using visual props, morphological identification of voucher specimens, and dna barcoding. results: altogether, 92 taxa identified to the species or genus level were recorded, among them 76 species used as food, 21 taxa known as toxic, and 11 taxa used for non-culinary purposes. out of 76 identified edible fungi species, 47% (36 species) were identified using its dna barcode method. eleven of them were identified exclusively by molecular analysis. the mean number of edible taxa mentioned per interview was 9.5. two species new to the mycobiota of poland, hydnum ellipsosporum and paxillus cuprinus, were found. frequent interaction with mushroom collectors enabled the transcription of local folk taxonomy into proper taxonomic classification and the definition of changes in local preferences concerning wild fungi collection. conclusions: the list of species utilized is the longest regional list of edible mushrooms ever recorded during ethnomycological field research, putting the inhabitants of the studied region at the top of the mycophilia spectrum.”

“Mushrooms: poisons and panaceas–a handbook for naturalists, mycologists, and physicians by denis r. benjamin.”