GROWING GOURMET - Anto2ni.it

tive species and planted in plots similar to
Christmas tree farms. Several years passed
before the harvests began. However, since
Oregon White Truffles were naturally occurring
nearby, whether or not the inoculation
process actually caused the truffles to form is
unclear.
Mycorrhizal mushrooms in Europe have
suffered a radical decline in years of late
while the saprophytic mushrooms have increased
in numbers. The combined effects of
acid rain and other industrial pollutants, even
the disaster at Chernobyl, have been suggested
to explain the sudden decline of both
the quantity and diversity of wild mycorrhizal
mushrooms. Most mycologists believe
the sudden availability of dead wood is responsible
for the comparative increase in the
numbers of saprophytic mushrooms. The decline
in Europe portends, in a worst case
Figure 8. Scanning electron micrograph of an
emerging root tip being mycorrhized by mushroom
mycellum.
THE ROLE OF MUSHROOMS IN NATURE 7
scenario, a total ecological collapse of the
mycorrhizal community. In the past ten years,
the diversity of the mycorrhizal mushrooms
in Europe has fallen by more than 50%!
Some species, such as the Chanterelle, have
all but disappeared from regions in the Netherlands,
where it was abundant only 20 years
ago. (See Arnolds, 1992; Leck, 1991). Many
biologists view these mushrooms as indicator
species, the first domino to fall in a series
leading to the failure of the forest's life-support
systems.
One method for inoculating mycorrhizae
calls for the planting of young seedlings near
the root zones of proven mushroom-producing
trees. The new seedlings acclimate and become
"infected" with the mycorrhizae of a
neighboring, parent tree. In this fashion, a second
generation of trees canying the
mycorrhizal fungus is generated. After a few
Figure 9. Scanning electron micrograph 01
mycelium encasing the root of a tree after
mycorrhization.
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