The Białowieża National Park organized another, already the 26th, Exhibition of Fungi of the Białowieża Forest last week. Its ceremonial opening took place on Saturday, September 17 at 12:00 at the Nature Education Center of the Białowieża National Park in Białowieża. This year, at the exhibition, Mr. Marek Wołkowycki presented the lecture “Bladeless arboreal mushrooms of the Białowieża Forest”. Over a hundred species of arboreal fungi occurring in the Białowieża Primeval Forest could be seen at the exhibition. The fungi have been collected in the last days in the forest. Also, some speciments came from the collections of the Institute of Forest Sciences of the Białystok University of Technology.
It was a unique opportunity to see in one place common and rare arboreal fungi with hoof, semi-like or wallpaper-shaped fruiting bodies, all from the Białowieża Primeval Forest. These are species that can only be found in natural forests with a lot of dead wood”, Head of the research and educational department of the BNP, Barbara Iwaniek told the PAP agency. She emphasized that no other national park in Poland can boast of such a wealth of arboreal mushrooms.
The healing properties of these mushrooms – including anticancer and antiviral – are being investigated by scientists from INL of the Białystok University of Technology and the Medical University of Białystok.
Exhibition in numbers:
182 identified species of mushrooms
4 days of fieldwork
2 days of chamber works