Greenland: Mushrooms in Greenland
Surprisingly, there were tons of mushrooms seen on all hikes in Greenland, and most of them are edible and highly delicious species that it was literally heart-wrenching to pass by (sadly, the ship’s management didn’t like the idea of cooking wild mushrooms for us – for liability reasons understandably). The most common species was Leccinum rotundifoliae or Arctic Bolete, similar in appearance and taste to porcini or red-capped scaber stalk, a choice edible mushroom for sure. Another relatively common species was Lactarius resimus, not known or famous in the west, but considered among top three choice mushrooms in Russia and the Eastern Europe, known there as “white gruzd”, delicious when salted. Interestingly both of these two mushrooms form symbiotic mycorhizal underground relationship with birch trees (dwarf birch in Greenland). Several other mushrooms species were common as well – like giant puffballs or red russulas, but there were a few species that I frankly have never seen before. If it was only possible to forage and pick mushrooms here!
