Nearly 1,500 mushroom varieties identified in Alt Pirineu Natural Park

The Alt Pirineu Natural Park is one of the best places in the country to find mushrooms, given the wide variety of different fungi found there.

The catalogue of mushrooms in this protected area is currently being prepared, and mycologists have already documented almost 1,500, a figure that could still increase considerably, as the work identifying and cataloguing them is not yet finished.

Park officials hope to be able to publish the full catalogue of mushrooms found in the park next year.

Over the past weekend, a session was held to learn how to identify mushrooms in the Virós forest, in Pallars Sobirà, in western Catalonia.

Among the mushrooms collected were the 'Chlorophilium Agarocoides', commonly known as the puffball parasol. This rare species is on the 'red list' of mushrooms to be protected due to its low presence.

Also found during the survey was the 'Amanita phalloides,' known as the 'death cap', remarkable as it had never before been documented in the park.

This type is a highly toxic mushroom that causes death if ingested. It was found in the Alt Pirineu Natural Park at an altitude of above 1,400 meters - also remarkable as it is a mushroom difficult to find above 1,000 meters.

Mycologist Joan Montón said they will work to discover if the find was a one-time thing, or if amanitas could be found in other places in the Alt Pirineu and Aran, or if it is a cause of climate change.

During the weekend outing, the participants managed to collect 132 species of mushroom in Alins.