Fungi in the Jungle

I’ve been investigating the fungi in Cusuco National Park for over three years and it’s still normal to see mushrooms I don’t recognize every day during the field season. We’ve made almost 1,000 collections of mushrooms from sampling plots and from the side of the trail when we find something interesting. The high plant richness and humid environment support a large diversity of fungi, for most of which it is difficult to assign a species name.

Leader of fungal research in Cusuco, Danny, examines a large Amanita species.

We find large Amanita species that that grow in mycorrhizal associations with nearby trees and may be desirable edibles or deadly-poisonous depending on the species. We find tiny cup-shaped fungi, often less than 1 mm across, that decompose plant material on the forest floor. We also find cordyceps that actively kill their hosts. Often, we find all three in one day!

A small example of the different morphologies and ecologies of fungi collected in Cusuco National Park.

Collecting, documenting, and identifying species is challenging. While we take pictures and notes while collecting (How does it smell? Is it growing on wood? Are there pine trees nearby?), microscopic features and DNA sequence data obtained back in the laboratory are often essential data to help identify a collection. Excitingly, we find many species that are likely new to science. Describing a new species can take a long time, but we have already described three new fungi from Cusuco.

Chlorosplenium cusucoense, one of the new species of fungi described from Cusuco National Park.

Long term studies of fungi are rare, particularly in the tropics, which makes this research even more important. Thankfully, almost everyone enjoys mushroom hunting during expeditions. Other staff members, research assistants, and students bring mushrooms they’ve collected to ‘team fungi’ throughout the season. We’re happy for all the contributions we can get! As of 2024, Cusuco is the only OpWall site with a biodiversity survey for fungi. We hope you consider joining us in the future to better understand the fungi in Cusuco.

Fungi team members Jeff, Iván, Silas, and Libelje posing with a variety of mushrooms found in the Base Camp kitchen in 2024.

Title photo: Fungi team members Jeff, Kyra, and Valeria enjoying a photo shoot with a large Amanita species found in 2023.