Ethnomycology of Wild Edible Mushrooms by the Bunggu Tribe in West Sulawesi, Indonesia

Ethnomycological knowledge is still largely unknown compared to local plant and animal knowledge, despite the fact that wild mushrooms are an important component of healthy and well-functioning ecosystems.Wild mushrooms are also an integral part of many social and economic systems in various parts of the world.Pasangkayu District, West Sulawesi Province, Indonesia, is home to a diversity of edible wild mushrooms and an extensive human-mushroom relationship.Traditional knowledge of local ecology and mycology is essential to preserve ecological systems and promote sustainable livelihoods of local communities.This study aims to explore the ethnomycological practices regarding wild mushrooms among the indigenous Bunggu tribe, Pasangkayu Regency, Central Sulawesi Province, Indonesia.The results showed that there were 14 species of mushrooms used by the Bunggu ethnic community as food, medicine, lighting at night and shampoo/hair tonic.Mushrooms that have the highest Relative Frequency of Citation (RFC) value in this study are Schizophyllum commune, Auricularia auricular-judae, Auricularia polythrica, Termytomyces spp.and Cookeina spp., Volvariella volvaceae, Lentinus sp.Pleurotus sp. which are 1, while the lowest is Mycena spp. with an RFC value of 0.38.Mushroom species that have low RFC values require conservation efforts to prevent extinction and can be utilised sustainably.The highest Informant consensus factor (ICF) value of 0.98 was found in the use of mushrooms as a food source, followed by the use of mushrooms as medicine (0.94), and their use as lighting at night (0.90).This finding shows that the Bunggu tribe is rich in traditional knowledge in utilising wild mushroom species as food and medicine and helps to determine macro mushroom species that can be cultivated in the future, which is expected to improve the economy of the Bunggu tribe.This research also plays an important role in the conservation of these mushroom species by involving local communities.