(From Santiago, Chile) In addition to being a good actor, Leonardo Dicaprio is a renowned environmental defender who usually publishes good news on this topic on his official Instagram account. This Thursday, a post of his celebrated the discovery of a endemic fungus of Chilethe one believed lost for more than 40 years.
Although the species was first found in 1982their trail had been completely lost until now, as they exultantly announced from the Fungi Foundation. The discovery is of utmost importance for biodiversity, experts commented in the documentary “In Search of a Lost Mushroom” – which premiered in Youtube this Wednesday -, since they help wild flora proliferate. Furthermore, they recalled that the scientific community knows less than 10% of mushrooms that proliferate Worldwide.
Given the magnitude of the discovery, the American actor published a post with images from the documentary, which details how the “Great Puma”, also highlighting the Chilean filmmaker who directed it.
“Gran Puma mushrooms are a mysterious species of mushroom that lives underground in the mountains Nahuelbuta, in Chile. Expedition team members even think that these mushrooms may only be visible above ground during “a few days a year”says the publication.
DiCaprio invited his followers to watch the documentary and mentioned its director, “Catalina Infantewhich captured the wonder of the expedition, as well as the moment the team found the Gran Puma mushrooms alongside the local community.”
In the explanatory text, the actor says that the fungus was missing for 36 years, since it was officially described in 1988, but was actually discovered six years earlier.
This is not the first time that Leonardo DiCaprio has mentioned Chile, as he has previously also referred to other species in danger of extinction, the most recent being the huemul – the smallest deer in the world -, when last February he showed his support on the same social network for an initiative to protect this small animal that is a national emblem.
According to the magazine New Scientistwho found this fungus for the first time was the mycologist Norberto Garrido, who called it “Great Puma” because he found it in the Nahuelbuta mountain range, which means “the great mountain range of the puma” in Mapudungún, the Mapuche language. Its scientific name is Austroomphaliaster nahuelbutensis.
Garrido formally described the fungus in 1988, where he reported its colors grayish brown with red touches, wide trunk downwards and its size between 4 to 5 centimeters highaccording to the media.
However, no one ever saw a specimen again. Due to this, in 2023 a team of experts from the Fungi Foundation carried out a week-long expedition in Nahuelbuta, managing to collect two copies that matched the descriptions of the “Great Puma,” the nature and environmental news site, Ladera Sur, reported on that date.
Now, and after months of review of documentation and DNA analysis to compare the samples found with those from four decades ago, mycologists finally confirmed that it is Austroomphaliaster nahuelbutensis.
“It is the only species of mushroom of its genus, that makes it very special,” he said. Daniela Torres, mycologist at the Fungi Foundation. “The first time we saw it we knew in our soul that it was the fungus. “We scream, we laugh, we cry,” assured, according to a BíoBío note.
Experts hope to learn more about this species and how it is distributed, in order to get to the details about its state of conservation. “Once we do that, we can make sure he can get protection,” Torres concluded.
