Three Nepalese villagers are missing and 12 others were injured in an avalanche in northwestern Nepal where they were picking a medicinal mushroom dubbed "Himalayan Viagra," authorities said Monday.

A group of 15 pickers of the yarchagumba mushroom in the highlands of Mugu district were buried by an avalanche on Saturday at a remote site where a helicopter could not land due to bad weather. Rescuers went there on foot, Mohan Bahadur Thapa, a district official, said Monday.

In search of the right mushroom

Another avalanche last week in the western district of Darchula killed three "yarchagumba" pickers and authorities were searching for two others still missing.

Every year, thousands of villagers in Nepal and Tibet pick the parasitic fungus Cordyceps sinensis, known locally as "yarchagumba", which grows on the body of a caterpillar.

Considerable sums at stake

Meaning "summer plant, winter insect" in Tibetan, the parasitic fungus lodges in a caterpillar, killing it by mummifying it to grow. It is also called "caterpillar fungus" of which it retains the shape.



This fungus can bring considerable sums in neighboring China, where it is used in herbal medicine, but it grows only more than 3,500 meters and its lifespan is only a few weeks.

A vulnerable species

No definitive research has been published on the virtues of the mushroom, but Chinese herbalists believe that it boosts sexual performance. Consumed as an infusion or as an ingredient in soups and stews, the mushroom is believed to treat a variety of ailments.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2020, excessive gathering has reduced, by at least 30% over the past 15 years, the presence of the fungus that is on its list of "vulnerable" plant species, threatened with extinction.

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