The invasive species that devour North American and European forests
The golden oyster mushroom does not appear capable of radically altering forests throughout North America and Europe. It is not malicious. It doesn’t have world domination plans. It’s just a cluster of some kind of mustard yellow mushrooms. Yet its spread has been wild and uncontrolled and is slowly changing some of the most important ecosystems in the world.
The reason it’s spreading so quickly is the same reason it was originally brought from Asia back in the early 2000s: it can grow quickly, which was a blessing since it’s considered one of the tastiest mushrooms a forager can find in the woods.
The problem is that it didn’t stay inside. It spread quickly and soon appeared in at least 25 states as it thrived on dead and dying hardwoods. Typically, according to a BBC report, trees colonized by golden oyster mushrooms harbor about half the fungal biodiversity of unaffected trees, a strong signal that native fungi are being displaced and replaced by a single plant, reducing biodiversity and disrupting food chains.
This matters because fungi are part of the infrastructure of their environments. They help break down wood, recycle nutrients, support plant growth and literally help forests breathe. When one aggressive species rolls in and dominates, it creates ripple effects on everything from the rate of decay to the amount of carbon a forest releases. It makes otherwise predictable ecosystems wildly unpredictable.
Golden oyster mushrooms decimate the microscopic worm population
There’s also the other, more disturbing part of the wild spread of the golden oyster mushroom: oyster mushrooms are carnivores. They trap and paralyze microscopic worms using a toxin, then consume them from the inside. They consume more as they grow and spread, further damaging environments.
It’s easy to suggest going in there and stopping the spread as best we can, but that’s not only easier said than done, it may actually be impossible at this rate. A single fungus can release billions of spores. Containment is wishful thinking at that point. So instead, a loose nexus of professional growers, hobbyists and citizen scientists is trying a different approach: Instead of trying to prevent the golden oyster mushroom from continuing to spread, help the native fungi better compete against it.
The BBC spoke to a mushroom dealer named Andy Knott, who is giving out kits of cloned native oyster mushrooms to the public as part of a conservation effort. Some then deliberately spread these spores in their local environments.
The two biggest factors contributing to the spread of not just golden oyster mushrooms, but other fast-spreading mushrooms like death caps are human trafficking and climate change. Scientists are only just beginning to trace the consequences, but we know for sure that humans bringing non-native species with them when they move are the inciting event, and climate change, which brings warmer temperatures and in some places wetter climates that allow fungi to thrive, is helping these non-native fungi spread in places they shouldn’t be.
