Mycologists at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, have identified three new species of mushrooms contained within a commercial packet of dried Chinese porcini purchased in London, UK.
Contents of a commercial packet of dried porcini containing three species new to science. Image credit: Bryn Dentinger.
Porcini are one of the most widely traded wild edible mushrooms in the world.
These mushrooms are large and conspicuous and used as a food both on their own and in processed food products.
Although porcini are best known from Europe and North America, recent discoveries from food markets and fieldwork have turned up new species from all over the world, including tropical Australia, Southeast Asia, China, Central and North America.
There are some 25 named and accepted species. The best-known species is Boletus edulis.
China is a major exporter of porcini, most of it ending up in Europe.
Kew scientists Dr Bryn Dentinger and Dr Laura Martinez-Suz were surprised when the DNA analysis of 15 mushroom pieces from a commercial packet of Chinese porcini, purchased in southwest greater London in October 2013, revealed that all belonged to three Boletus species, none of which had scientific names.
“The discovery demonstrates the ubiquity of unknown fungal diversity, even in traded products, and the recognition of these species will enable better regulations to improve food safety and enable countries to adhere to international agreements on the exploitation of wild species,” said Dr Dentinger and Dr Martinez-Suz, who reported the discovery in the journal PeerJ.
_____
Dentinger BT, Suz LM. 2014. What’s for dinner?: Undescribed species in commercial porcini from China. PeerJ 2: e423v1; doi: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.423v1
