MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
I'm thinking of something yellow, something a little slimy but also edible and possibly invading North America. OK, enough clues. I am talking about the golden oyster mushroom. It's a fungus. It is native to Eastern Asia, but for years now, it's been cropping up in parts of the U.S. The spread has been rapid and destructive. That's according to a new study published in the journal Current Biology. Here to tell us more is the study's lead author, Aishwarya Veerabahu. She's a mycologist and a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Hi, there.
AISHWARYA VEERABAHU: Hi, thank you for having me.
KELLY: So I've just described it's edible, it's yellow, it's a little slimy. Say you and I are out. We're walking through the woods. We spot a golden oyster mushroom. Just describe it. What are we looking at?
VEERABAHU: So each cluster has multiple bright yellow mushrooms. They have white gills and white stems. And there are even multiple clusters of those multiple mushrooms probably covering a log or a stump.
KELLY: I said edible. They're apparently quite tasty. What do they taste like?
VEERABAHU: They taste slightly nutty to some. But for me, even as a mycologist, I can only say that it's got a earthy mushroom taste. I like to kind of fry them up with some garlic and olive oil and have them in my tacos.
KELLY: Excellent idea. OK, and that turns me toward the kind of thrust of what we're here to talk to you about, which is that your team has tracked the spread of the golden oyster mushroom. How has it spread so quickly? How does it move from one place to another?
VEERABAHU: We're still exploring that right now. But our best guess is that it's probably spreading through a combination of its spores that it releases, which is in the order of millions and billions of spores that get carried on the wind. And then the other way that we think it might be spreading is because it's popularly sold in these mushroom growing kits where people can, you know, buy this online and grow it at home.
KELLY: Now, I called it destructive. Explain why. What happens when it arrives in a new ecosystem?
VEERABAHU: We have found that its presence in dead trees and dead wood is associated with much lower fungal biodiversity. And we also find that which fungi are in this tree completely change once golden oyster has colonized that tree. And so we are worried about the downstream cascade of effects that could happen. Like, could it change deadwood habitats for birds and small mammals and tree seedlings that use those habitats? Could it change wood decay processes and possibly even the carbon emissions that come from decaying wood?
KELLY: Did your study look at possible solutions? We said they're tasty. Can we make enough tacos, eat enough of them, forage enough of them (laughter) that we slow or halt the spread?
VEERABAHU: (Laughter) I truly wish. I always encourage people to continue foraging and enjoying their golden oyster mushroom finds. But this is not a situation that we can eat our way out of, unfortunately. There's no practical way to get them out once they are established somewhere. For now, I am promoting people to consider cultivating local species that are native, and also for mushroom businesses and customers maybe to consider not buying golden oyster mushroom for the time being, especially if they live in an area where it has not yet been introduced.
KELLY: The golden oyster mushroom here to stay, it sounds like. You heard it here first. Aishwarya Veerabahu, thank you.
VEERABAHU: Thank you.
KELLY: She's a mycologist and a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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