Soil-to-mushroom transfer and diversity in total mercury content in two edible Laccaria mushrooms

Abstract

Transfer factor and distribution of mercury were determined for Laccaria amethystina and Laccaria laccata growing in two distantly localized regions of the world and with different status of geogenic mercury. Mushrooms and soil were sampled in Poland in 2001–2013 and in the Yuxi region of Yunnan Province in China in 2013. The mushroom L. laccata was a more efficient accumulator of mercury than L. amethystina. Total mercury contents of whole fruiting bodies of L. amethystina and L. laccata at most sampling sites in Poland were low, i.e., around 0.02–0.1 mg kg−1 dry matter. For L. laccata from the Yuxi County of Yunnan province in China, Hg was at around 0.04 mg kg−1 dry matter. The median soil-to-mushroom transfer factors that are by some researchers also called bioconcentration factors calculated for L. amethystina were below 1, and for L. laccata they were from 3 to 20. The levels of contamination with mercury of both species do not pose toxicological problems, even if these species are consumed by mushroom fanciers in large amounts.