White Ferula Mushroom, Pleurotus nebrodensis
20th Century • Madonie Mountains, Italy
“The most delicious mushroom growing in Sicily” - Inzenga, 1863 A mushroom prized for its flavor, the White Ferula is found in the mountains of Sicily and Greece. Mushroom populations are especially difficult to track because many of them are only visible when they are fruiting, but because of the long history of harvesting the fruiting body of Pleurotus nebrodensis for food, scientists are able to track the progressive decline of the species, likely due to an increase in cattle farming, loss of habitat, and over-harvesting. Our knowledge of the White Ferula is an exception in the field of fungi conservation where little is known about the state of the world's fungi. As of 2018, scientists found that only 56 fungi had been evaluated for existential threats (of the 2 - 12 million fungi species that are estimated to exist).
Bing Wu, Muzammil Hussain, Weiwei Zhang, Marc Stadler, Xingzhong Liu & Meichun Xiang (2019) Current insights into fungal species diversity and perspective on naming the environmental DNA sequences of fungi, Mycology, 10:3, 127-140, DOI: 10.1080/21501203.2019.1614106. | Venturella, G, Saitta, A, Gargano, ML & Zervakis, GI 2011, 'Building the jigsaw puzzle of the critically endangered Pleurotus nebrodensis: historical collection sites and an emended description', Mycotaxon, vol. 115, pp. 107-114. | “Fungi Are Key to Our Survival. Are We Doing Enough to Protect Them?” Environment, 18 Mar. 2021, www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/fungi-are-key-to-survival-are-we-doing-enough-to-protect-them.
Pleurotus nebrodensis, Dimitrios Dimou, Agricultural University of Athens, Greece. [email protected].| IUCN Mediterranean Plant Specialist Group. The Top 50 Mediterranean Island Plants UPDATE 2017. Pasta S., Perez-Graber A., Fazan L. and Montmollin B. de (Eds)
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