Two New Species of Mushroom Discovered, Hiding in Plain Sight

If you like mushrooms, then you're in luck. Two new species of the fungus have been discovered--right beneath researchers' noses.

Commonly known as 'ox tongue' mushrooms, the fungi possess the genus Hydnum. Many mushrooms that belong to this genus are edible and are consumed in many different parts of the world. Despite their wide use, though, there have been relatively few recent serious studies that have attempted to clarify what species exist, and what differences there are between them.

In fact, differentiating the mushrooms that belong to this genus is a complicated task. There is a high resemblance between species, and many of them possess microscopic characteristics. Scientists believe, though, that the genetic diversity is very high for this genus.

The two mushrooms that have now been detailed were first found by Ibai Olariaga Ibarguren and colleagues. While Olariaga was performing a review of the genus in the Iberian Peninsula, he discovered that there were two species that were distinguishable from the rest due to their specific ecology. In addition, the two species possessed ovoid basidiopores, as opposed to the balstospores that the majority of the species had. Basidiopores are spores produced by fungi for the process of reproduction, and are formed differently from the balstospores that perform the same function.

Species that belong to the Hydnum genus actually can't be cultivated. Instead, they're collected from natural ecosystems in large quantities. Since they're not poisonous, they're usually sold for use in food. At the same time, this lack of poison has also caused researchers to not place a great emphasis on differentiating the various species.

The fact that researchers haven't differentiated the species, though, means that scientists have no idea if one species could be endangered or not. There is very little known about how widespread these mushrooms are, what their ecology is and whether those being collected are threatened by extinction.

"This type of study allows us to delve deeper into these aspects and gain precise information that can be interesting from an applied point of view, since it is necessary to know for example if one or a few species produce certain secondary metabolites or molecules of industrial interest," said Olariaga in a press release.

While these mushrooms may be common, they could certainly still be important. The fact that researchers are only now identifying these mushrooms after they've been collected for years means that there could be even more discoveries on the horizon.

The findings were published in the journal Mycologia.