Thunder Mushrooms

It had been a cold night, after raining a good part of the late afternoon and evening, but the rains eased off towards the earlier part of the morning of January 21st 2007.

I opened my bedroom window at 8.50am the following morning, and a carpet of white on the ground met my gaze. This was the third time Thunder Mushrooms had sprouted right beneath my bedroom window and balcony. Thunder Mushrooms in Chinese, Cendawan Busut in Bahasa, and Termitomyces Albuminosus, its scientific name.

I knew these mushrooms were edible and not poisonous. I had eaten them many times before. My first time was when a friend, Lady Julie, cooked some of these together with prawns, sliced chicken (or even sliced pork with some fat on it) and bamboo shoot. An excellent cook, the dish was delicious. Her gardener had picked the Thunder Mushrooms and bamboo shoot from her own garden in Section 5, Petaling Jaya.

When Lady Julie and Sir Ken Scriven went to visit their daughter in UK, I stayed at their home for a month, to look after their dogs. During that stay, I picked mushrooms twice, harvesting those on the ground just outside the living room, but not daring to venture further below, where there was a drop of about ten feet.

Apoo, their Indian gardener, had encountered a King Cobra twice, when he picked the mushrooms below. Lady Julie told me his encounter: Apoo saw a sea of white Thunder Mushrooms below the drop, and he made his way down to pick them. When he looked up, a King Cobra was eye level with him, in its poised position to strike. Apoo "chatted" to it, though he was quivering in fright, telling the Cobra, in Tamil, that he was but a poor gardener harvesting some food for his family, and to please leave him alone and not harm him, not moving at all as he spoke. He seemed to have gotten through to the snake, since it slithered away, leaving him unharmed.

Having heard this, I kept to the ground above and never dared venture further down.I feared the King Cobra not understanding me if I spoke to it in Chinese,or English...

Out of curiosity, should any Tiaran have had Thunder Mushrooms sprouting outside their units, I would be happy to hear about it. Surely,in our sprawling grounds, other parts may also have had such mushrooming of the Cendawan Busut, also known as the Termite Mushroom.

I got in touch with Dr. Wan Hassan, a specialist in Tropical Agriculture, Food Science and Technology as well as Nutrition and Animal Husbandry, and the author of several coffee table books, with another just hot off the press in January, entitled Healing Herbs of Malaysia. After listening to my description of the mushroom, he told me that it was the Termitomyces Albuminosus, and when conditions were right, they sprouted. Despite his 25 years with the Malaysian Agriculture Research and Development Institute (MARDI) as a research scientist and a Director, he said that MARDI had yet to discover what the conditions were which would make the wild growing mushrooms sprout. Hence this species was not cultivable.

That morning, I managed to gather two large plastic bags of the Thunder Mushrooms and packed them for friends who had given me standing orders to reserve these for them should I harvest any. I kept back a portion to put into fried rice, for the Nepalese guards.

Over the next few days,I fried some in butter and had them for breakfast. Excellent.

Our Administrative Assistant, Puan Salmah Ahmad, knows about these Cendawan Busut. In the villages she has lived in, in Kuala Selangor as well as the Felda Scheme in Sendayan in Seremban, she has harvested bags of them, countless times. She said that ten minutes or so after thunder struck and heavy rains poured down, she would take two or three ten-kilo beras plastic bags and pick the mushrooms outside her home.

However, not all mushrooms can be eaten. And mistaking a toxic species for an edible look-alike can be fatal, cautioned Professor Emeritus Datuk Ahmad Nawawi Ayob. The Professor, who has spent most of his life studying the Fungi Kingdom, is a connoisseur of mushrooms and an advocate of cultivated varieties.His favourite, though, is the Cendawan Busut of Peka Ayam, aka the Termitomyces Albuminosa, the Thunder Mushroom. This species of mushroom have a symbiotic relationship with termite nests, he added.

"The older generation of kampung folk know these well, as do the orang asli," the Professor stated, "but the thing about mushrooms is that you must know them expertly. If you don’t, just buy them from the supermarket or market," he advised.

Mushroom poisoning happens throughout the year, throughout the world, "So if you dont know your mushrooms, don’t even think about touching them," summed up the mycologist. This is because mushroom poisoning, officially known as mycetismus, can be fatal. The toxins from poisonous mushrooms are lethal, causing nausea, vomitting, cramps, diarrhoea, disrupt the entire working of the nervous system as well as cause hallucinations. They also cause cellular destruction, liver damage, kidney failure and death - usually occurring within hours.

But the edible varieties are nutritious. They are a cheap source of protein, contain all the essential amino acids, are high in unsaturated fatty acids, low in calories and good for roughage as well. Popular varieties imported or cultivated include the famous Shiitake, Paddy Straw, Enoki and Button.

Mushroom cultivation is a good business too since it grows very fast and harvests are frequent. They also fetch a high price.