Climate change may be changing the growth patterns of local wild edible mushrooms called ‘roen alami’, said researcher Nandkumar M. Kamat, assistant professor, department of Botany, Goa University. These mushrooms grow on termite hills.
Mr. Kamat said that PhD scholar Rosy de Souza had found samples of Termitomyces mushrooms three weeks earlier than what is considered their ‘normal’ season.
“These species can’t fruit without termites. So, the termites are adapting to climate change as the spores are transported to their underground ‘Olamo’ or fungus garden. Termites in Goa consume 50% of dry dead litter and convert it into soil using this fungus which generally fruits in the last week of June. But this year, it fruited two weeks early — a record,” said Mr. Kamat.
He said that this could be evidence of global warming impacting wild mushrooms in the coastal State of Goa with implications for similar species in other Western Ghat States.