Meadow mushroom The mushroom of the year 2018

Mushroom of the Year 2018: The Meadow Mushroom

The meadow mushroom has become rare. For the wild-growing relatives of the cultivated mushroom has already lost many habitats through more intensive use of grassland, explains the German Society for Mycology. For this reason too, he has been named "Mushroom of the Year 2018". The scientists also want to point out the importance of fungi for our ecosystems in general.

In Germany more than 60 mushroom species are native, including the meadow mushroom (Agaricus campestris) counts. The popular edible mushroom is also called Feldegerling. It thrives on near-natural pastures and meadows and feeds on dead plant material. The fruiting bodies appear between July and October and can often sprout in hundreds of hundreds in dry summers after a heavy rainfall. The mushrooms are in large groups, in rows or in rings of witches. At maturity, the lamellae discolor through the spores from pink to chocolate brown. Anyone who goes in search of the forest, but must know. Because the meadow mushrooms can with the poisonous carbolic mushroom (Agaricus xanthodermus) be confused. Be careful with an unpleasant smell of ink and intense gel staining on the lower stem. The toadstool is easy to recognize by these characteristics.

While the meadow mushroom used to appear in large numbers, today it has a hard time, according to the Society for Mycology. Because it used natural meadows for the production of energy crops and nutrient-poor soils designated as building land. Another problem would be if meadows were fertilized excessively with liquid manure. As a result, the natural nitrogen cycle in the soil is out of balance. The result is that natural communities of algae, bacteria, plants, fungi and animals are lost. Heike Kreutz, bzfe