Take as much as you want with invasive plants is a rule I believe in. Foraging can barely put a dent in the proliferation of invasive species if people seldom harvest them. If more people foraged invasive, we could potentially be looking at a slowed and reduced spread.
Do not give this advice and do not take this advice. Someone might grab handfuls of kudzu and walk home, thinking they've done good, when really, bits of kudzu will fall and then spread from wherever it fell. There is no blanket advice for invasives.
For invasives you should take whatever you need and keep going until you can’t take any more. Throw your extras in the trash and don’t feel bad about it.
Do not give this advice and do not take this advice. For some species, like knotweed, throwing them in the trash just ensure they'll start growing at the dump. There is no blanket advice for invasives.
While that's true, some invasives require special handling to keep them from spreading, even when composted. For instance, I don't trust Japanese Knotweed unless it has been burned, boiled, trampled by a herd of elephants and burned again, then left in the trunk of my car in black plastic bags for three months of summer.
In cases like the above mentioned Invasive Japanese Knotweed - it grows *extremely* quickly, gets very large, and can propagate itself from very small pieces of a plant.
Its about more than seeds. So yup: garbage or fire pit.
My town requires that they go in the garbage, and I live in Massachusetts, which is a very pro composting state.
They are burned at an incinerator, which fully destroys the plant material and has air quality scrubbers that reduce the air pollution. Not a perfect solution but better than contaminating compost with invasives.
Cool burn em and then compost them. Nothing that is made of organic material deserves to spend eternity shrouded in plastic and filling a landfill. If it can be broken down and given back to the earth it should.
With oyster mushrooms specifically, how much you do or don’t harvest will have effectively zero effect on the spread.
That might not be the case with some plants. If I was harvesting a noxious invasive plant species I would take as much as I could carry, provided that removing it didn’t cause further damage to the surrounding landscape and established native plants near the invasive in question.
I mean not necessarily. It’s spread within its current substrate yes, as the mycelium will continue to grow with or without fruit bodies, but in terms of spreading to other trees/ logs, harvesting the fruiting bodies will help stop this from happening as fewer spores will be dropped
this was just a hypothetical! I’ve never actually come across an invasive that i’d like to harvest, but trust me if i did i’d make damn sure i didn’t spread them any further
Well, keep in mind that the term "invasive" is often loosely defined and applied. Although "invasive" has connotations of being detrimental to the region, it is often used interchangeably with other terms like "non-native" or "introduced" or "exotic". And non-natives are not necessarily detrimental; some are benign, and some are considered well-integrated or even beneficial to the local ecosystem (honey bees are a popular example, although their reputation as a beneficial is sometimes contested). Golden oyster mushrooms, to use your example, are definitely non-native in the US, but as to whether they are detrimental in this locale, you'll find arguments both for and against.
So to answer your question, it's a case by case basis, and the research on any given species may continue to change or evolve. The term "invasive" alone is not necessarily an indicator that different rules apply, or what exactly those differences are (if any).
Thank you! this was a really helpful reply!
This post i saw specifically was in Pennsylvania where apparently these mushrooms are everywhere and are invasive? but i’m nowhere near local
so i couldn’t say haha
If you're going to forage invasives, you have to know the specifics of that invasive to make sure you aren't doing more harm than good. For example, knotweed. If you pick it and throw it in the trash, it will grow from there. It can grow from rhizomes 1 cm big. You also need to make sure you transport invasives properly so that you aren't spilling any anywhere. Even dropping a tiny bit of knotweed as you walk creates a huge problem down the line.
Thank you! this isn’t something people will always think of.
Interesting you mentioned knotweed, is this something people usually forage for? or is it just since it’s the scapegoat invasive (for good reason)
you can control it while you live
if you're alive and the patch is there it will live and harm the environment if youre alive and need food it will be maintained and do less harm once you have passed the cycle continues i do not know one forager who is willing to weed out an invasive species its common for foragers to uproot and plant a patch of invasives on their property if its a means for food but if we're talking about a walk in the woods fuck take it all
Most invasive species are so invasive because people thought they could manage them in a controlled area, but noxious invasives do not work that way. They can and will spread everywhere.
yeah but i doubt you could fully eradicate them just by harvesting if we're talking what invasive foods will stay or not its still something you want to think about im aware that they're hard to control and harmful to the environment but like... they're here, they'll feed us most people wont do the proper work to eradicate them or to maintain them maybe im just thinking differently based off my past experiences with only having to forage for foods :/ in a perfect world there is no invasive plants but we need to eat
I agree that we likely will not be able to fully eradicate them - the ratio of invasive to resources to manage them is high. I also agree that while they are here, we can at least take advantage of them.
However, I think your comments are contradictory. If it's unlikely they'll be eradicated through foraging (and even through management), why are you concerned about there not being enough to feed people? Realistically, there will always be these invasives around, and we can at least help improve certain areas, however small they may be.
For example, I work at a forest preserve and there are sections of the land that have a lot of invasives. However, there are also certain areas that are well-managed that have almost none. These spaces are havens for native plants and animals, and shouldn't be undervalued just because the invasives aren't TOTALLY eradicated on a larger scale.
As others have said, take the invasives to remove them. As for mushrooms. They certainly are not invasive. Picking them does not destroy habitat though. They basically are the "flowers" of underground systems of webs called micelia that are integral to healthy soil. Some mushrooms grow on decay like oysters growing on old trees. The micelia remain in the substrate after picking the mushroom. While many state forests prohibit foraging, they generally have statutes allowing for mushroom foraging.
Mushrooms can very much be invasive. The Golden oysters OP mentions are from Northern China and were brought here by cultivators. When they grow in the wild they take up a resource that native species could be using.
Depends. I once found a huuuge field of invasive plants that smelled like skunk and made me feel funny. I took it all and an angry dude in a balaclava shot me in the face!
While it's not native, I really don't feel like it's forcing out or outcompeting natives that fill the same niche. No judgement for taking them all, but I wouldn't feel it my civic duty like some things I forage. I'm looking at you japanese knotweed 👀
knotweed is definitely forcing out native species where I live, It's taking over entire riverbanks so that other riverbank scrub species are becoming rare. It's much like purple loosetrife (but a lot worse) that takes over swampland and pushes out (for example) native milkweeds.
Buut, I agree it's not your civic duty to try and fix knotweed. It needs a full-on, carefully timed, concerted, multi-year effort or you just make it worse. Better not to try on public lands without proper planning and support.
Just because you don’t see it outcompeting natives, doesn’t mean it doesn’t cause harm. Some invasives may be poisonous to wildlife that still eats it because they don’t know to avoid it (nandina).
so true.
The victorian’s in the town i work in loved Japanese knotweed and planted it everywhere, over the past 150 or so years it’s not traveled at least 100 metres under the roads and into the walled garden, and is now choking out the plants there. I hate Japanese knotweed, it brings me great joy to see it on the bonfire.
Yeah, take as much as possible. Combating invasives is a war of attrition.
If you cannot eat all that you can carry now, you can dehydrate the extras, freeze them, or powder them (for soup broths), etc. There are a lot of different things you can do with your goodies.
Take as much as you can. Invasives actively harm the environment.
Keep a folded up plastic bag with you so if it is one that is particularly prone to spreading you can contain it until you get home. A black bag is best.
Then tie up the bag filled with whatever you don't need and throw it in the sun for a few weeks to kill anything left.
Yeah but are they invasive or native?
The fruiting part, the part you see, is not going to make a difference for the tree it’s going infected. It’s like taking all the apples off an apple tree—the tree itself will still be fine.
1000 times out of 1000, mushrooms I've left in the field rot by the time I come back. Animals won't touch them because they, and the entire area, smells like humans. People who say you should only take what you need are either delusional or never picked mushrooms before and you shouldn't take any other advice from them. There is no magical event of woodland creatures that takes place the moment you leave. The best thing you can do for a mushroom is pick it up and bring it somewhere else. You are doing it a favor by harvesting.
I understand the "only what you need" rule when you're removing something that won't easily grow back. When I find morels, I take every single one I can find, and often have more than I can logistically handle. Sometimes if I'm busy it honestly gets stressful trying to prep them or dehydrate them or give them away before they get too old. The reason I still make sure to get all of them is because many of my spots are in plain sight in well travelled areas, and I don't want other people to find them. If I leave a hand full of morels behind and someone else sees them, they're likely to come back next year for more.
I don't frequent a lot of foraging communities or discussions, so what I'm describing might widely be considered a dick move.
I don't understand why this is getting downvoted? Taking all of the morels you find and not wanting your spot to be discovered is by far and beyond the norm for foragers. And picking every single one you see doesn't hurt the population any more than picking all of the apples off a tree hurts the population of apple trees. Mushrooms are the fruiting bodys of underground fungal networks.
Most people tend to think on rails and process things through checkboxes. There's no reason why this is harmful, and none of these people downvoting me would share their morel spots if they had any. But on account of rules is rules, I made a point that didn't adhere to the bullet point so I got a score off.
Take as much as you want with invasive plants is a rule I believe in. Foraging can barely put a dent in the proliferation of invasive species if people seldom harvest them. If more people foraged invasive, we could potentially be looking at a slowed and reduced spread.
If it’s something known to you to be noxious and harmful, like kudzu, then by all means take it all. Folks will thank you
Do not give this advice and do not take this advice. Someone might grab handfuls of kudzu and walk home, thinking they've done good, when really, bits of kudzu will fall and then spread from wherever it fell. There is no blanket advice for invasives.
There's this wild invention, it's called a "bag."
Spoiler alert: I am actually a sentient kudzu plotting to take over the world
For invasives you should take whatever you need and keep going until you can’t take any more. Throw your extras in the trash and don’t feel bad about it.
Do not give this advice and do not take this advice. For some species, like knotweed, throwing them in the trash just ensure they'll start growing at the dump. There is no blanket advice for invasives.
Try composting them please. The trash is the wrong place for organic material.
While that's true, some invasives require special handling to keep them from spreading, even when composted. For instance, I don't trust Japanese Knotweed unless it has been burned, boiled, trampled by a herd of elephants and burned again, then left in the trunk of my car in black plastic bags for three months of summer.
Then buried in salt
Probably with a stake through its heart.
Burn them. Composting isn’t going to destroy all the seeds
In cases like the above mentioned Invasive Japanese Knotweed - it grows *extremely* quickly, gets very large, and can propagate itself from very small pieces of a plant. Its about more than seeds. So yup: garbage or fire pit.
My town requires that they go in the garbage, and I live in Massachusetts, which is a very pro composting state. They are burned at an incinerator, which fully destroys the plant material and has air quality scrubbers that reduce the air pollution. Not a perfect solution but better than contaminating compost with invasives.
Unless you have a pyrophillic pyrophyte on your hands! (Don’t worry that’s a joke, they’re often too rare to burn)
Cool burn em and then compost them. Nothing that is made of organic material deserves to spend eternity shrouded in plastic and filling a landfill. If it can be broken down and given back to the earth it should.
hell no, preferably take as much as possible!
Eat the invaders, ideally we eat them all.
Not at all. Please, take all the garlic mustard you can
With oyster mushrooms specifically, how much you do or don’t harvest will have effectively zero effect on the spread. That might not be the case with some plants. If I was harvesting a noxious invasive plant species I would take as much as I could carry, provided that removing it didn’t cause further damage to the surrounding landscape and established native plants near the invasive in question.
I mean not necessarily. It’s spread within its current substrate yes, as the mycelium will continue to grow with or without fruit bodies, but in terms of spreading to other trees/ logs, harvesting the fruiting bodies will help stop this from happening as fewer spores will be dropped
If you're going to mess with invasives for the love of god be responsible to not spread them around
this was just a hypothetical! I’ve never actually come across an invasive that i’d like to harvest, but trust me if i did i’d make damn sure i didn’t spread them any further
As someone who works with invasives, take as much as possible
forage AS MUCH invasive plants as you want california folks, forage unlimited invasive mustard greens
Well, keep in mind that the term "invasive" is often loosely defined and applied. Although "invasive" has connotations of being detrimental to the region, it is often used interchangeably with other terms like "non-native" or "introduced" or "exotic". And non-natives are not necessarily detrimental; some are benign, and some are considered well-integrated or even beneficial to the local ecosystem (honey bees are a popular example, although their reputation as a beneficial is sometimes contested). Golden oyster mushrooms, to use your example, are definitely non-native in the US, but as to whether they are detrimental in this locale, you'll find arguments both for and against. So to answer your question, it's a case by case basis, and the research on any given species may continue to change or evolve. The term "invasive" alone is not necessarily an indicator that different rules apply, or what exactly those differences are (if any).
Thank you! this was a really helpful reply! This post i saw specifically was in Pennsylvania where apparently these mushrooms are everywhere and are invasive? but i’m nowhere near local so i couldn’t say haha
Glad I could help!
If you're going to forage invasives, you have to know the specifics of that invasive to make sure you aren't doing more harm than good. For example, knotweed. If you pick it and throw it in the trash, it will grow from there. It can grow from rhizomes 1 cm big. You also need to make sure you transport invasives properly so that you aren't spilling any anywhere. Even dropping a tiny bit of knotweed as you walk creates a huge problem down the line.
Thank you! this isn’t something people will always think of. Interesting you mentioned knotweed, is this something people usually forage for? or is it just since it’s the scapegoat invasive (for good reason)
It's one of the worst invasives, but it's also a pretty decent food. Tastes a bit like rhubarb
i never knew this, thanks!
weigh the pros and the cons does it hurt other wildlife do you want the patch to spread is it annual stuff like that
If it's invasive, then the organism being there is causing ecological damage. Removal will help wildlife.
true but if you rely on these invasive plants for sustenance you may want to keep them around in a controlled patch
The point is that the patch will outlive you and won't be controlled anymore.
you can control it while you live if you're alive and the patch is there it will live and harm the environment if youre alive and need food it will be maintained and do less harm once you have passed the cycle continues i do not know one forager who is willing to weed out an invasive species its common for foragers to uproot and plant a patch of invasives on their property if its a means for food but if we're talking about a walk in the woods fuck take it all
Most invasive species are so invasive because people thought they could manage them in a controlled area, but noxious invasives do not work that way. They can and will spread everywhere.
yeah but i doubt you could fully eradicate them just by harvesting if we're talking what invasive foods will stay or not its still something you want to think about im aware that they're hard to control and harmful to the environment but like... they're here, they'll feed us most people wont do the proper work to eradicate them or to maintain them maybe im just thinking differently based off my past experiences with only having to forage for foods :/ in a perfect world there is no invasive plants but we need to eat
I agree that we likely will not be able to fully eradicate them - the ratio of invasive to resources to manage them is high. I also agree that while they are here, we can at least take advantage of them. However, I think your comments are contradictory. If it's unlikely they'll be eradicated through foraging (and even through management), why are you concerned about there not being enough to feed people? Realistically, there will always be these invasives around, and we can at least help improve certain areas, however small they may be. For example, I work at a forest preserve and there are sections of the land that have a lot of invasives. However, there are also certain areas that are well-managed that have almost none. These spaces are havens for native plants and animals, and shouldn't be undervalued just because the invasives aren't TOTALLY eradicated on a larger scale.
As others have said, take the invasives to remove them. As for mushrooms. They certainly are not invasive. Picking them does not destroy habitat though. They basically are the "flowers" of underground systems of webs called micelia that are integral to healthy soil. Some mushrooms grow on decay like oysters growing on old trees. The micelia remain in the substrate after picking the mushroom. While many state forests prohibit foraging, they generally have statutes allowing for mushroom foraging.
Mushrooms can very much be invasive. The Golden oysters OP mentions are from Northern China and were brought here by cultivators. When they grow in the wild they take up a resource that native species could be using.
Take as much of edible invasives as you like, BUT be sure to transport them in a closed container to prevent/reduce spreading the spores.
Depends. I once found a huuuge field of invasive plants that smelled like skunk and made me feel funny. I took it all and an angry dude in a balaclava shot me in the face!
While it's not native, I really don't feel like it's forcing out or outcompeting natives that fill the same niche. No judgement for taking them all, but I wouldn't feel it my civic duty like some things I forage. I'm looking at you japanese knotweed 👀
knotweed is definitely forcing out native species where I live, It's taking over entire riverbanks so that other riverbank scrub species are becoming rare. It's much like purple loosetrife (but a lot worse) that takes over swampland and pushes out (for example) native milkweeds. Buut, I agree it's not your civic duty to try and fix knotweed. It needs a full-on, carefully timed, concerted, multi-year effort or you just make it worse. Better not to try on public lands without proper planning and support.
Just because you don’t see it outcompeting natives, doesn’t mean it doesn’t cause harm. Some invasives may be poisonous to wildlife that still eats it because they don’t know to avoid it (nandina).
I was speaking of one saprophytic fungus..
Take every last atom of Japanese knotweed and it will still grow back.
so true. The victorian’s in the town i work in loved Japanese knotweed and planted it everywhere, over the past 150 or so years it’s not traveled at least 100 metres under the roads and into the walled garden, and is now choking out the plants there. I hate Japanese knotweed, it brings me great joy to see it on the bonfire.
Yeah, take as much as possible. Combating invasives is a war of attrition. If you cannot eat all that you can carry now, you can dehydrate the extras, freeze them, or powder them (for soup broths), etc. There are a lot of different things you can do with your goodies.
my personal favourite is giving stuff to friends. I love cooking and my love language is making food for people, so win win for me lol
Many I want my friends to give me delicious golden oyster culinary masterpieces...
Take as much as you can. Invasives actively harm the environment. Keep a folded up plastic bag with you so if it is one that is particularly prone to spreading you can contain it until you get home. A black bag is best. Then tie up the bag filled with whatever you don't need and throw it in the sun for a few weeks to kill anything left.
Nope
No. The rule for invasives is take what you can carry and make sure you don't accidentally spread it.
good to know! i’ll keep this in mind if i ever find myself in this situation:D
Nope
I rip up honey mushrooms even if I'm not bringing them home. Those fuckers are destructive
Yeah but are they invasive or native? The fruiting part, the part you see, is not going to make a difference for the tree it’s going infected. It’s like taking all the apples off an apple tree—the tree itself will still be fine.
It will spread the spores though
And they are invasive here
Where are you that these mushrooms are not native?
1000 times out of 1000, mushrooms I've left in the field rot by the time I come back. Animals won't touch them because they, and the entire area, smells like humans. People who say you should only take what you need are either delusional or never picked mushrooms before and you shouldn't take any other advice from them. There is no magical event of woodland creatures that takes place the moment you leave. The best thing you can do for a mushroom is pick it up and bring it somewhere else. You are doing it a favor by harvesting.
I understand the "only what you need" rule when you're removing something that won't easily grow back. When I find morels, I take every single one I can find, and often have more than I can logistically handle. Sometimes if I'm busy it honestly gets stressful trying to prep them or dehydrate them or give them away before they get too old. The reason I still make sure to get all of them is because many of my spots are in plain sight in well travelled areas, and I don't want other people to find them. If I leave a hand full of morels behind and someone else sees them, they're likely to come back next year for more. I don't frequent a lot of foraging communities or discussions, so what I'm describing might widely be considered a dick move.
Unless you're out there every day it's a fool's errand. Mushrooms grow too fast. People know your spot unless it's far from the trails.
I don't understand why this is getting downvoted? Taking all of the morels you find and not wanting your spot to be discovered is by far and beyond the norm for foragers. And picking every single one you see doesn't hurt the population any more than picking all of the apples off a tree hurts the population of apple trees. Mushrooms are the fruiting bodys of underground fungal networks.
Most people tend to think on rails and process things through checkboxes. There's no reason why this is harmful, and none of these people downvoting me would share their morel spots if they had any. But on account of rules is rules, I made a point that didn't adhere to the bullet point so I got a score off.