Mushroom-growing boom could cause biodiversity crisis, warn UK experts

Pink oyster mushrooms, a non-native species, growing in a home kit. Photograph: Jennifer Gauld/Getty Images/iStockphoto

A boom in the popularity of mushroom-growing at home could lead to a biodiversity disaster, UK garden experts have warned.

There has been a rise in the number of people growing mushrooms in their gardens, and this year, the RHS Chelsea flower show’s plant of the year award included a mushroom – the tarragon oyster mushroom, thought to be found only in the British Isles – in its shortlist for the first time, despite it being a fungus, not a plant.