Preserving the Wild Mushrooms of Mexico

Hey there, it’s Ezequiel from Fungaria!

Last year, I wrote a piece for the Mycopreneur Newsletterintroducing the Moni Project, talking about who the Moni mushrooms are, where they grow, how I first came to know them, why we aim to protect them, and what this project is all about. If you’d like to read that story first, you can check it out here:

Moni Project: What are Moni, why I love them so much, why I aim to protect them, and where the project is standing thanks to you 🍄 🧺 📹

Since then, a lot has happened. Last year, thanks to all who believed in the project and supported it, we were able to organize the 3rd Moni Fest, continue filming our mini-documentary Los Moní del Nangaño, and create a community mural dedicated to these mushrooms and the traditions surrounding them. 

Now, we are ready for the second part of the Moni Project, and we would love for you to be part of it. Now the project will include more areas, because what began as an idea to give greater visibility to a group of wild mushrooms, has gradually grown into something much larger, bringing together tradition, community, art, conservation, and now, increasingly, science.

But before getting into the specifics, let me briefly introduce the Moni again for those of you who may be joining this story for the first time.

Moni is a word in Zoque —an indigenous language from Chiapas— used to refer to wild edible mushrooms. Different mushrooms may then receive an additional name referring to their color, appearance, ecology, or another characteristic (e.g., Moni coloradito). Within the Moni Project, however, our story revolves particularly around a fascinating group of edible fungi associated with the Nangaño forests of central Chiapas.

A platter of Moni: Moni coloradito (Cantharellus coccolobae), Moni cenizo (Lactifluus murinipes), and Moni de San Juan (Lactifluus aff. veraecrucis).

The Nangaño, Gymnopodium floribundum, is a shrubby tree that can form remarkably dense forests locally known as Nangañales. To most people passing by, these forests might not seem particularly extraordinary. But beneath their soil exists an entire hidden world.

Among the first rains of the year, species of Lactifluus (mainly Lf. chiapanensis and Lf. murinipes) begin emerging from the ground. Later in the rainy season, particularly after the canícula, other Moni appear, including the beautiful pink Cantharellus coccolobae and the peculiar Tremelloscypha gelatinosa.

These fungi are not simply growing near the Nangaño. Many of them form ectomycorrhizal associations with its roots: intimate biological relationships through which fungi and plants exchange nutrients and depend on one another. This is what makes the relationship so important.

And the forest itself is home to a much greater diversity of ectomycorrhizal fungi than most people would ever imagine. For generations, these mushrooms have also been part of the lives of people from central Chiapas. They are collected for family consumption, cooked in traditional dishes, shared between generations, and sold by local vendors—particularly the Canasteras, women who bring wild mushrooms and other seasonal products into the markets and streets of Tuxtla Gutiérrez and nearby communities.

In that sense, the Moni are more than fungal species. They represent a meeting point between a forest, its fungi, and the people who have learned to recognize, collect, cook, sell, and celebrate them. That connection is exactly what we hope to protect.

Unfortunately, many of the traditions surrounding these mushrooms are slowly becoming less common. The people who hold much of this knowledge are getting older, while younger generations often have fewer opportunities to learn how to recognize the mushrooms, where to find them, how to collect them, or how to prepare them.

At the same time, fewer people are purchasing Moni in local markets. This creates a much larger problem than simply losing a traditional food. Nangaño forests have relatively few economic uses compared with agricultural land. Much of the value that local communities place on these forests comes precisely from the resources they provide—including mushrooms, edible and ornamental plants, and other products collected from the forest. 

If the traditions associated with these resources disappear, one of the reasons for keeping the forests standing disappears with them. And because the Moni are so closely tied to the Nangaño, the fate of the mushrooms and the fate of the forest cannot really be separated. If the Nangañales disappear, the Moni disappear with them, along with part of the knowledge, food traditions, memories, and stories that have developed around them. This connection between cultural continuity and forest conservation has been one of the central motivations of the Moni Project from the beginning.

Taking a break during a foray of Moni coloradito(Cantharellus coccolobae), sinking in Nangaño vibes. Such a beautiful forest.

Our goal is therefore not simply to tell people that these mushrooms exist. We want people to see them, taste them, study them, talk about them, and feel proud that something this extraordinary exists in Chiapas. And last year, we had the chance to see what can happen when people are brought together around the Moni.

This is probably one of the parts of the project I am happiest to share. Thanks to the donations we received during our previous campaign, the 3rd Moni Fest became a reality.

The idea behind Moni Fest has always been simple: instead of talking about conservation only through warnings about what we could lose, why not bring people together to experience what is worth protecting? And that is exactly what happened. The festival brought mushrooms into the conversation from many different directions.

We had cooking workshops using Moni, where people could experience these mushrooms as food rather than simply looking at them in photographs. We had mushroom cultivation workshops, helping participants discover another side of the fungal kingdom and learn practical skills they could take home with them.

There was a demonstration of mushroom dyes, showing yet another surprising way fungi can become part of our everyday lives.

We had specialized talks, where science and traditional knowledge could be shared with the public in an approachable way.

But Moni Fest was never intended to be only a scientific event. There was also dance, art, photography, food, and many other activities centered around the Moni. Children and adults participated in artistic activities inspired by mushrooms, while our photographic exhibition allowed visitors to discover some of the incredible fungal diversity that grows around them.

A glimpse of what went on during the 3rd Moni Fest. 

Photos from the forays held during the festival

Perhaps one of the most special moments of the festival was something we had been looking forward to for a long time: the first public screening of a preview of our mini-documentary, Los Moní del Nangaño.

Over the previous months, we had been visiting forests, markets, kitchens, and homes to film the people behind this tradition: mushroom collectors, Canasteras, cooks, families, and others whose lives have intersected with the Moni in different ways. Seeing part of that story projected in front of an audience for the first time was incredibly exciting. And even more exciting was seeing the reaction.

Our previous support also helped us create another permanent tribute to the Moni: the Moni mural in Copoya, painted by artist Berenice Reyes. This mural portrays the Moni, the Nangaño, and “La Reina del Moni”, (the queen of the moni, Doña Tevera, a traditional forager from Copoya), being then a visual reminder that these mushrooms are part of the cultural and natural heritage of the region.

”Los Moni de Nangaño” mural, painted by Berenice Reyes

Together, the festival, documentary, and mural became different ways of telling the same story. And none of them would have happened in the same way without your support.

Now we want to go one step further. From the beginning, science has always been part of my relationship with the Moni. I first encountered these forests as a biologist interested in fungal diversity, and the Nangañales quickly became one of the ecosystems that fascinated me the most.

Every time we walk through these forests looking for Moni, we encounter much more than the mushrooms people traditionally collect. There are Amanita, boletes, coral fungi and many other ectomycorrhizal species sharing the same ecosystem—some recognizable, some poorly documented, and others whose identity is still a mystery.

An undescribed Amanita species from the Nangañales

And this is where the second stage of the project becomes especially exciting. We do not only want to photograph these fungi or give them temporary names. We want to study them properly. 

That means documenting their morphology, preserving specimens, and, importantly, obtaining molecular data that allow us to compare them with other fungi already known to science.

DNA sequencing can help us determine whether a collection corresponds to a known species, understand how it is related to other fungi, document its presence in Chiapas with greater confidence, and recognize cases in which we may actually be dealing with species that have not yet been formally described.

This applies not only to the wider fungal diversity of the Nangaño forests, but also to the Moni themselves. There is still much to understand about their taxonomy, diversity, distribution, and relationships. And if we want to talk seriously about protecting an ecosystem because of the organisms it contains, first we need to know what those organisms actually are.

Part of the funds raised through our new campaign will help cover research materials, specimen shipping, and molecular analyses so that collections from the Nangaño forests can be documented with the scientific rigor they deserve. For me, this is one of the most important ways in which the Moni Project is evolving.

And there is much than science to come

Of course, the scientific work is only one component of this new stage.

We have launched a new GoFundMe campaign to help us continue several parts of the project at once. Find more about it here:

Help Preserve The Wild Mushrooms of Chiapas, Mexico

With your support, we aim to complete the mini-documentary Los Moní del Nangaño, including the editing, animation, software, and specialized production work still necessary to transform all the footage we have collected into the finished story we envision.

We also want to bring the community together once again for the 4th Moni Fest, this time at the Museo de la Ciudad de Tuxtla Gutiérrez, with more cultural, educational, scientific, artistic, and culinary activities centered on the Moni and the Nangaño forests.

Official flyer of the 4th MoniFest, which is due to happen this september

A new mural at the Museo de la Ciudad will leave another permanent reminder of these mushrooms and their connection with Chiapas.

Part of the campaign will also help us provide food and beverages for the people volunteering their time to make the festival possible.

And, as mentioned above, another part will directly support the scientific documentation of the fungal diversity of the Nangañales through materials, specimen shipping, and molecular work. These are the main goals of the new fundraising campaign.

So, although we often refer to this as the “second part” of the project, I think of it more as an expansion.

One phrase has stayed at the center of this project: We cannot love what we do not know. Our hope is that more people from Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Suchiapa, Chiapa de Corzo, Coita, and other neighboring communities will discover just how extraordinary the natural and cultural heritage around them really is.

The first stage showed us what can happen when people decide to help. You helped us create a festival, document stories, celebrate local knowledge, bring fungi into public spaces, and begin telling the story of the Moni through film. Now, we would love for you to join us for what comes next.

If you can contribute to our new GoFundMe, every donation—regardless of size—helps us move one part of this project forward. And if donating is not possible, sharing the campaign with someone who cares about fungi, conservation, culture, science, or Chiapas can be just as valuable.

Here is the link for the campaign: 

Help Preserve The Wild Mushrooms of Chiapas, Mexico

Thank you for helping us get this far.

And, once again…

LET’S KEEP MONI-ING!!! ❤️

(Editor’s Note: The weekly Mycopreneur Incubator will take place today at the same time and link as usual — I’m scheduled to fly to New York today for the Western New York Fungi Festival departing at 3 pm, so I will log in early and appoint someone else who is there a few minutes early as the host. If you’d like to host the Incubator today, please message me)

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