A Popular Gourmet Mushroom Is Escaping Gardens and Invading US Forests

Golden oyster mushrooms arrived in the United States in the early 2010s. The canary-colored, fluffy mushrooms have since gained popularity as an aesthetically pleasing, tasty addition to numerous recipes—sold in grocery stores, farmers markets, and, more recently, as staple grow-your-own kits for casual gardeners.

But these foreign mushrooms—native to the hardwood forests of East Asia and Russia—come with “great responsibility when growing,” according to conservation scientists at the…