Amanita annulatovaginata
A wild ectomycorrhizal Amanita of the Congo rainforest, recorded as locally consumed in Tshopo province. Its preparation was not established, and the genus includes deadly species.
Mushrooms
Cookeina speciosa
A forest cup fungus of the Tshopo province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, recorded in local interviews as eaten. The species-level preparation is not established.
Overview
Cookeina speciosa is a cup-shaped fungus of the forest. The catalogue records it from Tshopo province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where local people named it in voucher-backed interviews as a mushroom they eat. No common name is recorded.
The name is not yet checked against a current accepted name, so it cannot be tied to one fixed species concept.
Sources for this section
Ecology
Cookeina speciosa is recorded as a forest saprotroph. It grows on decaying wood and forest debris, not in a partnership with a living tree, so its supply depends on dead wood in the forest.
The catalogue gives no abundance, season or harvest pattern.
Sources for this section
Local use
The interviews record Cookeina speciosa as locally consumed. The preparation specific to the species is not established, so no cooking method is given here. The Tshopo survey as a whole places wild mushrooms within food and medicine practice in several communities.
Safety and identification
This is an ethnomycological food-use record. It is not an independent toxicological assessment, and it does not show that the species is safe to eat in any preparation.
Catalogue inclusion is not an identification verdict and this page must not be used to identify a specimen for eating. Cup fungi on wood are hard to tell apart in the field, so identification needs local expertise and a reference that covers look-alikes. Appearance, smell and taste do not establish safety.
Sources for this section
What is still unknown
The record leaves open the accepted name, the preparation, the season, the distribution beyond Tshopo and any toxicity data. A next step is a voucher-backed name check against current taxonomic authorities.
Sources for this section
Places
Tshopo province
Documented use · Region evidenceThe food-use record comes from voucher-backed interviews in Tshopo; it does not place the species at a single locality.
Related
More from Tshopo
Amanita echinulata
A wild ectomycorrhizal Amanita of the Congo rainforest, recorded as locally consumed in Tshopo province. Its preparation was not established, and the genus includes deadly species.
Amanita robusta
Amanita robusta Beeli is a poorly documented Central African Amanita known from voucher-backed rainforest collections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Cameroon. A Tshopo study reports local food use for a taxonomically supported voucher, but neither that record nor the name makes an unknown Amanita safe to identify or eat.
Armillaria heimii
Armillaria heimii is a saprotrophic fungus of the honey-fungus genus, recorded as a wild food in Tshopo province, DR Congo. Its preparation and safety are not established in the sources.
Calyptella longipes
Calyptella longipes is a wood and litter decaying fungus of the rainforests of Tshopo province, DR Congo, where some ethnic groups in voucher-backed interviews eat it. Its preparation was not recorded.
Cantharellus congolensis
Cantharellus congolensis is an ectomycorrhizal chanterelle of sub-Saharan Africa, eaten in the Democratic Republic of the Congo under local names. Its edibility rests on food-use surveys, not on toxicity tests.
Cantharellus floridulus
Cantharellus floridulus is an ectomycorrhizal rainforest fungus that informants in Tshopo province, DR Congo, eat in voucher-backed interviews. Its preparation is not recorded, and the source gives no toxicity statement.
Coprinellus disseminatus
Coprinellus disseminatus is a small saprotrophic inky-cap mushroom that grows in clusters on wood and debris. A Congolese food-use record and a Colombian catalogue entry both call it edible, but neither describes its preparation.
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Sources
PubMed CentralFood use · Ecology · Safety
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7011311/Recorded as locally consumed in voucher-backed Tshopo interviews; species-specific preparation not established.
Forest saprotroph reported in the source.
Food-use record, not an independent toxicological assessment.
Cited in: Overview; Ecology; Safety and identification; What is still unknown
Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine (BioMed Central)Background · Method
Uses and importance of wild fungi: traditional knowledge from the Tshopo province in the Democratic Republic of the CongoWild mushroom use in Tshopo communities, documented through interviews and voucher specimens.
Cited in: Local use