New Photo Reports on MushRoaming in Tibet | Mushroaming - Daniel Winkler's Webpages Dedicated to Mushrooms and Nature Tours

Submitted by cordyceps on Sat, 10/02/2010 - 03:02

I uploaded dozens of images on my web pages from this summer's Floral & Fungal Foray to Tibet's beautiful Kongpo Region. The tour was a great success and we will do a similar itinerary July 31 to Aug 13, 2011 .

But back to Cordyceps. As expected we encountered hundreds of pounds of caterpillar fungus being traded on the markets in Lhasa and Bayi. Markets are much busier once all the caterpillar fungus is harvested.

A Tibetan offering a shoebox full of Yartsa gunbu at the Bayi Market .

A Hui dealer with around 10 pounds worth US$40,000 to 60,000.

I was quite surprised to find fresh caterpillar fungus in late July onthe markets in Kongpo, here a fresh harvest dug in the mountains above Draksum Tso. In most place the collection season is over in mid to end of June.

Freshly collected Bu karpo I encountered in a village near Draksum Tso. Here the white Yartsa Gunbu being dried on a threshold.
Bu Karpo deserves its own entry at some point. I have encountered it several times in Kongpo where it seems endemic.

I really loved our homestay with a Tibetan family who took us matsutake (Tricholoma matsutake) hunting in their evergreen oak woods on the foot of the majestic 7500m high Gyala Pelri. When back home we cooked up several mushroom species and shared our cooking. I still got to finish the report, but already uploaded 50 pics or so.

Also we found so many orchids that I had to make an orchid page which so far has 23 species including stunning lady slipper orchids Cypripedium (C. tibeticum, C.himalaicum, C.flavum and C. guttatum) and gorgeous Habenarias.

Cypripedium himalaicum on Serkim La Habenaria arietina flowering in Pome / Bomi

Many more pictures are to viewed on my web pages from this summer's Floral & Fungal Foray to Tibet.