Lower Franconia: Mushroom researchers make unusual finds – Bavaria

Mushroom researchers have made two unusual finds in Lower Franconia. In Bavaria’s first mushroom protection area, they discovered the small-spored fibrous inkling, also known as the small rabbit’s foot. According to the Bavarian State Forests, this fungus has never been sighted in Bavaria. In addition, the colorful bell jar was found for the first time in northern Bavaria. Previously, it had only appeared near Augsburg in 1954, as reported by the association Pilzfreunde Mainfranken, which maintains and researches the mushroom protection area on a voluntary basis. Both mushrooms are not edible.

Mushroom friends suspect climate change to be one reason for the spread of the bell jar to the north. The fungus is otherwise native to the south. “There are some fungi that have immigrated in recent years,” says senior hobby mushroom researcher Rudi Markones. You can clearly see the consequences of climate change. Among the fungi that have migrated is a fungus that attacks trees and causes sooty bark disease on maple trees. “It will be dangerous in the next few years,” says Markones.

Most mushrooms, on the other hand, are important for the forest. Among other things, they supply the trees with water and decompose dead wood, i.e. dead tree parts. The mushroom researchers are therefore observing with concern that the occurrence of some fungi is falling sharply due to climate change. “The consequences of this for the forest cannot yet be foreseen, but it is certainly not cheap,” says Markones. “Mushrooms are an indicator of how the forest is doing,” says the responsible forest manager Christoph Riegert from the Bavarian State Forests Arnstein.

The mushroom protection area is a piece of forest in the Irtenberger forest near Kist (Würzburg district). It was opened in 2019 as the first mushroom protection area in Bavaria to study how mushrooms develop in an undisturbed forest with a lot of deadwood.