The Grace of the Flood: Classification and Use of Wild Mushrooms among the Highland Maya of Chiapas

Abstract

The Grace of the Flood: Classification and Use of Wild Mushrooms among the Highland Maya of Chiapas. The highland Maya of Chiapas in southern Mexico gather, consume, and sell a wide variety of mushrooms during the rainy season from June to November. The mushrooms are prized as a valuable source of nutrition and income, and a few species are used medicinally. No evidence exists for current or historical use of hallucinogenic mushrooms, though descriptions of mushroom intoxication suggest nonspecific knowledge about the presence of psychoactive properties in some mushrooms. Free-listing exercises elicited 50 or more mushroom names in each of the two main highland Mayan languages, Tzeltal and Tzotzil. Identification exercises using mushroom photographs permitted a preliminary assignment of mycological species, genera, or families to many of the local mushroom names collected in free-lists. Field identification during the rainy reason further emphasized the concordance of many local names with distinctive mycological groups or taxa. Mushroom sketches made by informants revealed the detailed knowledge many of the highland Maya maintain about mushroom morphology, ecology, and diversity. Mayan mushroom classification provides additional evidence for several of the universally presumed principles of ethnobiological classification. However, in contrast to their classification of plants, the Mayan system of mushroom classification is mostly concerned with edible and other useful species. (One such species, previously unknown to science, is described here.) Most species with no cultural use are presumed by the highland Maya to be poisonous and are relegated to a wastebasket category known locally as “stupid” or “crazy” mushrooms.

Appendix 1

A New, Culturally Salient Species of Amanita

During this investigation, we encountered a large, striking edible amanita that is commonly gathered, sold, and consumed in and around San Cristóbal de las Casas, but is apparently undescribed. The name applied to this species in one Tzotzil Maya dialect is hayal yuy (or jayal yuy, depending on the phonetic alphabet used), meaning “thin amanita,” where hayal/jayal is the adjective “thin” and yuy is the Tzotzil folk genus name for Amanita in general and the A. caesarea complex in particular. Note that there are several slightly different phonetic alphabets used to write the highland Mayan languages and dialects. Some (see Laughlin 1975) have represented the aspirate consonant with an “h” as in English, while more recent and now standardized alphabets (see Berlin 1992; Breedlove and Laughlin 1993) use the Spanish “j” (as in “Juan,” “José”). In order to facilitate correct pronunciation for non-Spanish speakers, the former orthography is used to name the new species. The Tzotzil name, meaning “thin amanita,” is especially appropriate because this species and many of its close relatives in stirps Hemibapha are slimmer and thinner-fleshed than those of stirps Caesarea (see below).

Amanita hayalyuuy sp. nov. D. Arora & Shepard

Pileus convexus vel planus, saepe umbonatus, typice glandaceus centro fusciore et margine magis luteo et sulcato-striato. Contextus tenuis. Lamellae albae vel cremeae. Stipes typice longus, gracilis, aequalis, pallide luteolus, sub zonis fuscioribus, fibrillosisquamatis, typice annulo supero et volva ampla, alba, basali, saccata. Sporae ellipsoideae, inamyloideae, (8.6-) 9.3–11.7 (-14) × 6.2–7.8 (-9.3) µm; Q = 1.42 (1.29–1.69, n = 30, a typo mensa). In terra prope quercibus, Chiapas, Mexico. Typus hic designatus: UC 1860232 (San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas).

Pileus (cap) 8–18 (25) cm, convex becoming broadly convex to plane or with slightly uplifted, often splitting margin, the center usually with a low, broad umbo at maturity (Fig. 7); color typically golden-brown or bright yellow-brown as seen from a distance but actually darker brown (or at times olive or reddish) on the disc, much brighter in the mid-portion and paler still (yellow) at the margin. Surface slightly viscid or tacky when moist, typically bald, but occasionally with a thin patch of white universal veil tissue over the center, radially sulcate-striate from the margin inward, the striations typically 1–3 cm long; margin nonappendiculate. Context whitish to pale yellow, very thin at the margin, not staining appreciably when cut; odor mild, not distinctive. Lamellae (gills) off-white to cream-colored or pale yellow (not bright yellow), close, adnexed or free to narrowly adnate, with shorter truncate gills interspersed. Stipe typically long and relatively slender, 15–30 cm long when mature, and generally about 1–1.5 (2) cm thick, more or less equal or tapered slightly at the top; surface yellowish or cream-colored when fresh, but frequently decorated beneath the annulus with a darker orangish-brown to slightly reddish felty fibrillose layer (remnants of the inner layer of the universal veil) that frequently breaks up to form scaly, zigzagging zones (Fig. 8) around the stalk, these zones often discoloring with age or handling, and becoming duller and browner. Interior of stalk whitish to pale yellowish or cream-colored and hollow throughout or stuffed with a cottony white material. Partial veil typically forming a thin, superior, skirtlike yellowish annulus on the stalk that is striate on the upper surface and easily obliterated by handling. Universal veil white, forming an ample, sheathing, membranous, lobed saccate volva attached to the very base of the stalk; volva typically 2–5 cm high, often with a small limb (“limbus internus”) within it at the base of the stalk, but this feature not always well-developed.

Fig. 7.

Amanita hayalyuy, type collection showing the pale gills and broad umbo at the center of the cap. (Photo: Brent Berlin, all rights reserved).

Fig. 8.

Amanita hayalyuy in oak woodlands near the town of Teopisca. Note the tall stature when mature and the zigzag pattern of scales on the stalk. (Photo: David Arora, all rights reserved).

Spores white in mass; individual spores hyaline under the microscope, ellipsoid, apiculate, smooth, inamyloid, (8.6) 9.3–11.7 (14) × 6.2–7.8 (9.3) µm; Q = 1.42 (1.29–1.69), n = 30, as measured from the type. Pileipellis a trichodermium with some gelatinization at the surface. Basidia clavate, mostly 4-sterigmate, the bases with clamp connections. Subhymenium a thin (1–2 cell thick) layer of inflated cells. Gill trama bilateral. Tissue of the volva composed mainly of moderately branched, interwoven filamentous hyphae, but universal veil remnants on the surface of the stalk with large, swollen cells.

Collections Examined: UC 1860232 (holotype), bought in July in the main market of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, by Brent Berlin, but originating in the nearby village of Chamula; UC 1860233 (paratype).

Habitat and Seasonality: Solitary or in small groups, on ground near or under oaks (Quercus spp.) at elevations of 2,000 m. and higher; common in the mountains surrounding San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, and especially prominent in oak forests in the vicinity of the small towns of Chamula and Teopisca. It typically fruits from June to September but is most common in late June and July.

Comments: Amanita hayalyuy is one of the most salient edible mushrooms among the Tzotzil Maya of the Chiapas highlands. Within the large genus Amanita, this species clearly belongs to stirps Hemibapha of Section Caesareae as per Tulloss (2008). A. hayalyuy is close to A. arkansana Rosen. of the southeastern United States, but differs in its larger, ellipsoid (rather than broadly ellipsoid) spores and more prominently umbonate pileus (Fig. 7). The cap color varies somewhat but is usually yellow-brown, being yellowest at the prominently sulcate-striate margin and often darker (more olive or reddish) toward the center. It is easily distinguished from members of the A. caesarea complex (see Guzmán and Ramírez-Guillén 2001) by its yellow-brown rather than red-orange cap color, and its pale (never bright yellow) gills. Typically it is also taller, slimmer, and thinner-fleshed than species in the A. caesarea complex (referred to by the Tzotzil as “thick yuy,” “true yuy,” “yellow yuy,” or merely, yuy).

As there is considerable dialect variation for mushroom names, especially at the folk-species level, we expect that color distinctions (for example “red” vs. “yellow”) may also be used variably by other Tzotzil speakers to distinguish between A. caesarea, A. hayalyuy, and other edible amanitas. However, hayal yuy was the only local name we encountered that referred unambiguously to this species. We did not encounter this species while in the field with Tzeltal Mayan speakers, and thus did not register a proper Tzeltal folk-species name for it, but one or more names may certainly be in use. Since A. hayalyuy is a prominent commercial species in markets and roadside stands throughout the highlands of Chiapas (but especially in San Cristóbal and Comitán), it would be not be surprising to find it appreciated in the neighboring highland areas of Guatemala, at least where there are oaks. The taste of the cooked mushroom is much stronger than that of yuy, reminiscent of asparagus or fish. It is often roasted directly over the coals by the Tzotzil, the long stalk being used as a handle to manipulate it. It is also used in posole or soups, spiced with chili peppers and epazote (Chenopodium ambrosoides L.).

Appendix 2. Tzeltal mushroom names

Appendix 3. Tzotzil mushroom names

Appendix 4. Mushrooms identified from photographs in Arora (1991)