ETH researchers have discovered Boletus edulis (porcini mushrooms) growing at an elevation of over 2,400 metres in the Lower Engadine—the highest altitude ever recorded for these popular edible mushrooms in the Alps. Moreover, the mushrooms have "hooked up" with a new plant partner that was not on their list of possible symbionts to date.
A handful of students and their supervisors, Adrian Leuchtmann and Artemis Treindl, were astonished in September 2016 when they discovered the edible fungus commonly known as penny bun, cep or porcini mushroom growing in the area above Scuol. They hadn't expected to find this species thriving at such an altitude, in the middle of the Motta Naluns ski area, 2,440 metres above sea level.
"We came across the mushrooms by chance," Treindl says. For several years Leuchtmann, Professor at the Institute of Integrative Biology, and Treindl have conducted a field course with biology and environmental sciences students in Scuol (Graubünden). On one of the excursions they take the students to explore the alpine zone above the timberline. The fact that Treindl stumbled upon porcini mushrooms that very day was a lucky coincidence, not the result of a specific search.
Highest known site in the Alps
This find marks the altitude record for B. edulis in the Alps. Until now, its highest recorded occurrences were at 2,200 metres above sea level in Ticino and in Austria. The only place this fungus is known to grow at a higher altitude than in the Lower Engadine is in the Rocky Mountains, where porcini mushrooms have been found at elevations as high as 3,500 metres.
Source: phys.org
