Cultural Importance of Wild Mushrooms: A Comparative Analysis Between Wixaritari and Mestizo Communities Established in Different Types of Vegetation

Several methods have been proposed to quantify the cultural importance of plants, animals, and fungi, which can be influenced by sociocultural and ecological factors. To evaluate the relevance of wild mushroom species known by an Indigenous group and Mestizos, and to test whether ethnicity or the availability of mushroom species in different ecosystems influenced the importance of a species, we conducted free listing and semi-structured interviews. We tested the hypotheses with multivariate tests such as principal component analysis (PCA), discriminant function analysis (DFA), and redundancy analysis (RDA). With the free lists, we obtained a total of 29 ethnotaxa, 25 mentioned by Wixaritari and nine by Mestizos. Based on the frequency of mention, the species with the highest cultural importance were, in order, Volvariella bombycina , Pleurotus djamor , and Amanita complex caesarea . According to the PC1 values, the most important mushrooms were Amanita muscaria , Exsudoporus frostii , and the boletes. DFA showed that people separated themselves into cultural groups based on the species they mentioned. The Wixaritari mentioned more species found in temperate forests, and the Mestizos mentioned species almost only from subtropical scrubs. Nineteen species were considered edible, of which those with the highest frequency of mention had the greatest significance. The RDA showed that the most influential factor was the transmission of knowledge; important species were taught to them by their grandparents and parents preserving the cultural importance through generations. In conclusion, ethnicity had a greater influence on the cultural importance of mushroom species than species availability given by ecological zones.