Wild mushroom harvesters in mid-Atlantic region collect fungi, build community

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Foragers have been harvesting wild mushrooms in what is now Pennsylvania and the rest of the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region for centuries, but the extent and specifics of the practice in the region had not been formally studied. New research conducted by ethnobiologists — scientists who study the relationships between people and their environments — at Penn State revealed that harvesters collect a surprisingly wide variety of wild mushroom species in the region, primarily for food and medicinal purposes. In addition to foraging varied fungi, the researchers found that harvesters built communities focused on knowledge sharing and expansion.

“Pennsylvania has long been recognized nationally as a leader in mushroom cultivation, but this study highlights the less recognized or documented importance of wild mushrooms to Pennsylvanians and in the Mid-Atlantic more generally,” said Eric Burkhart, teaching professor in the College of Agricultural Sciences and senior author on the paper published today (Oct. 7) in Economic Botany. “This is the first study in Pennsylvania and the region to document the diverse array of mushrooms that mushroom hunters and enthusiasts seek out. This study also documented the activities that people engage in to help steward and encourage wild mushrooms, and the citizen science activities many participate in.”

The researchers reported that their survey and follow-up contacts involving nearly 1,000 wild mushroom harvesters in the Mid-Atlantic region showed that they harvested 160 different species of wild mushrooms in recent years. The foragers told the researchers that they collected the mushrooms for food, medicine, art, connection to nature and income generation. And many revealed that they engaged in sustainability-oriented activities, such as trying to promote the distribution of desirable species by spreading mushroom spores in suitable habitats.

Using common names, the three mushroom species most often reported as harvested by 826 survey respondents in the Mid-Atlantic region were morels, collected by 13% of respondents; chicken of the woods, also collected by 13%; and chanterelles, collected by 10%. Other mushrooms species most often harvested were hen of the woods, oysters, lion’s mane, black trumpet, honey mushroom, turkey tail, bolete, Reishi, puffball, chaga, shrimp of the woods and Dryad’s saddle, which is also known as pheasant's back mushroom.

Study participants were recruited from mushroom “clubs,” formal groups of mushroom enthusiasts. The average survey respondent age was 43 years old, with a range of respondent ages from 18 to 87 years old. Women comprised a slight majority of the sample, making up 58% of respondents.

Traditionally, mushroom harvesters gained ecological and biocultural knowledge — learning how to safely harvest wild mushrooms, knowing which species to eat and which ones to avoid — from family and friends. That’s still somewhat true, according to study first author Amy Wrobleski, who recently graduated with a doctoral degree from the Penn State Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in ecology. But judging by study participants’ answers to survey questions, she noted that most foragers also now are depending on the internet, social media and mushroom-identification phone apps, particularly to collect easy-to-identify mushroom species.

When asked about the first resource harvesters used, 25% of new harvesters chose “the internet,” followed by “family,” at 24%, followed by guidebooks, at 20%. As harvesters became more established, according to survey results, the internet continued to be their most-used resource, with 83% responding affirmatively. Guidebooks came in second, as reported by 74% of respondents.

“Social media has become a big part of the mushroom-harvesting community — people are even creating science projects together online, using digital tools to share what they find and learn with others across the region and the world,” she said. “This shows that mushroom harvesters are not just collecting mushrooms — they’re also building and sharing valuable knowledge about mushrooms and ecosystems, creating a digital mycology community.”

The research was funded by the Mycological Association of Washington, D.C., and Penn State’s Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences.