Morels, Truffles and other Spring Mushrooms
by Michael W. Beug Email: beugm@evergreen.edu
The Evergreen State College, Olympia WA
Slide 37.
This Leucogaster turned up on a research plot at Fort
Lewis, Washington, where a long-term study of spotted owls, flying-squirrels
and truffles is underway. Spotted owls prefer old-growth and are threatened
by logging. They prefer to eat flying squirrels. Flying squirrels eat truffles
and false truffles. If we manage a second-growth forest so that it becomes
a multi-storied canopy with lots of hypogeous fungi and lots of flying
squirrels, will spotted owls move in? The attempt to create such a forest
and a study of the results is now in its third year and will go on for
many more years. I have been taking advantage of volunteering with the
truffle hunts in order to learn more about ecology in general and truffles
in particular. Dr. Jim Trappe, world renowned expert on hypogeous fungi,
found this Leucogaster on one of my plots and pointed out
that this mushroom is rarely seen in the studies, but its spores are abundant
in flying squirrel droppings, indicating that they love it and are much
better at finding it than we are. There are about 20 known species of Leucogaster.
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