KPMS Spore Print

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2008-05-13T21:25:00.001-07:00

THE KENAI PENINSULA MYCOLOGICAL SOCIETY IS STILL ACTIVE AND GROWING. We have discontinued use of the KPMS blogspot and are now using a Google e-group site. This has made it much easier for our members and friends to communicate with one another, keep up with club news and receive timely notice of upcoming meetings and forays.

http://groups.google.com/group/kpms?hl=en is the address for the e-group site. You can also contact us by e-mail at sscott@ak.net or by mail at:

Kenai Peninsula Mycological Society

254 Redwood Court

Soldotna, AK 99669

Thank you for your interest. Please feel free to contact us.

Steve

Issue 14, February and March 2007

2007-03-31T16:56:00.000-07:00

THOSE &%$#@! COMPUTERS!

I think it was Teddy Roosevelt that said, “There is no such thing as functional illiteracy; because when a person is illiterate, he is not functioning.” Well, I’ve found that computer illiteracy is a lot like that, except that it is my PC that is not functioning!

Here I am, up against a deadline to get this newsletter out and it is one computer glitch after another. Why would it work yesterday and not today? Please don’t tell me that Windows is like that! If carpenters built houses like programmers wrote code, I’d bet you that it would only take one woodpecker to bring down a whole subdivision!

Don’t say I should have backed up my hard drive. I would have, but I couldn’t figure out how to put it in reverse. One thing I have figured out, though – there is only one satisfying way to boot a computer. Dominique has a Mac and he swears by it. I have a PC, and you guessed it, all I do is swear at mine. Sometimes, I think it would be great if we could go back to the day of pencil and paper. I don’t ever remember my pencil crashing! Well, that is probably enough about my computer woes!

___________

Those of us who made it to the February Microscope Workshop at the college had a great time. Dr. David Wartenbee was our instructor and he did a tremendous job! After a short overview of the different types of microscopes and their uses, he took us into the science lab for some ‘hands on’ practice. He had prepared slides available, but also helped prepare slides from material which was brought to the workshop. I think I can safely speak for the whole group, and say that it was a wonderful class, Dr. Wartenbee did an excellent job, and we all came away from the workshop with a solid understanding of the correct method for using a microscope.

Prior to the workshop and since, I have received quite a number of e-mails from those who wanted to be there, but had other commitments on February 3rd. If you were one of those, and would still like to attend a workshop, let us know. It is something that we could do again at a later date if there is enough interest.

Dr. Wartenbee has our thanks for giving so freely of his time and knowledge. We gave him a copy of Dr. Miller’s Mushrooms of North America as a token of our appreciation, but, we remain in his debt.

OUR NEXT MEETING WILL BE ON SATURDAY, MARCH 3rd, AT 1:00 P.M., IN THE COOK INLET AQUACULTURE BUILDING (40610 K-BEACH ROAD, KENAI). GUEST SPEAKERS WILL BE STEVE AND LINDA ALBERS.

At our March 3rd meeting, Steve and Linda Albers will be giving a presentation on ‘Myco-Medicinals’ (medicinal /pharmaceutical mushrooms).

Here is a brief bio on Steve and Linda:

Steve grew up in California and was introduced to mushroom hunting at a young age. He and his brothers would accompany their father and grandfather into the Santa Cruz Mountains and fill their bags with whatever they came upon. Afterwards, the elder Albers would separate out the edibles, and incorporate them into delicious dishes (especially pizza and spaghetti sauces). Steve moved to Alaska in the mid nineties and has continued to pursue his interest in mushrooming.

Linda hails from Michigan, where she spent much of her childhood fishing and ‘snooping’ around the woods, hunting arrowheads and mushrooms with her half Ojibwa father. (You probably already know that Michigan is famous for its bountiful morel crop!) As an adult she became an avid organic gardener and proponent of herbal healing. She also has a BSN in Nursing Science.

A few years ago Steve and Linda attended a ‘Nutritional Conference in Medical Practice’ seminar. It was there that they really became aware of the value of mushrooms in alternative medicine and especially in the treatment of chronic immune disorders. Since that time their interest in mushrooms has changed from simply culinary, to medicinal, as well.

Most recently, they attended the ‘Third International Medicinal Mushroom Conference’ which was held in Port Townsend, WA. (This conference is rarely held outside of Europe or Asia, and it will be at least another decade before it is returns to North America.)
It was truly and ‘international’ event with people in attendance from all over the world. Among the speakers and attendees were mycologists, mycology students, medical doctors and immunologists, specialists in infectious and contagious diseases, naturopathic practitioners, ecologists and specialists in bioremediation.

(From what I personally know of the conference, a list of those who attended would read like the ‘Who’s Who of the Mycological World’!)

Much of what they will be sharing with us has come out of that experience. In addition to their presentation, they will have copies of much of the research material available for us to view.

This is a timely subject. The use of mushrooms medicinally is an area of study that is just now coming into its own in Europe and North America. A great amount of research is being done and tremendously valuable discoveries are being made. Science is confirming what ancient cultures have known for centuries; that mushrooms have within them some of the most potent medicines found in nature. (But, unlike most pharmaceuticals, mushroom healing agents have extraordinarily low toxicity.) One very important focus of this research is the application of mushroom therapies for chronic and devastating diseases like cancer and auto-immune system related health problems.

The medicinal use of mushrooms is an interesting subject, and one that, without question, has the potential to play an important role in the future treatment of some of our most serious diseases.

We want to thank the Albers for offering to share their knowledge and experience with us.

HERE IS A QUIZ GUARANTEED TO TEST BOTH YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND TENACITY!

Recently Blanche Tinius sent me three articles from the summer, fall and winter 1999 issues of Mushroom, the Journal. They were the creation of Lorelei Norvell and Scott Redhead, and were written in response to a comment by mycologist Harley Barnhard. Harley, was (and is) the book review editor for MTJ. He had asked the question, “Has not the time come for the North American Mycological Association . . . . . to step forward and . . . . . sanction a list of common (or “popular”) names for mushrooms?”

We are told that “This question was provoked by Harley’s discovery that a new mushroom guide used one set of English names for the exact same species treated under an entirely different set of English names by the exact same author in a different guide published only two years previously.” And, if this was not confusing enough, he found that the common names used in these two references were also different than those found in other field guides. As the authors noted, “This state of affairs is guaranteed to drive someone with more than one book just plain nuts.”

Norvell and Redhead put together an entertaining spoof on the subject using the great detective Sureluck and his assistant Dr. Whatsong who have come into possession of the fall 1999 foray list of the “Pukey Point Mushroom Club.” To their surprise, the list is comprised wholly of ‘common’ or English names, with not so much a one single Latin name listed. Even the great Sureluck was a bit befuddled by the list.

So, here is our challenge – Can YOU identify the species on the list below?

1. Give us the Latin equivalents (the scientific names) for each English (common) name on the list.

2. List the total number of species represented.
Here are three helpful hints:
a) many mushroom species have undergone one or more name changes over the years. Though they have synonymous names such as Rhodophyllus nudus, Tricholoma nudum, Clitocybe nuda and Lepista nuda, this would be considered one species.
b) this is a ‘fall’ foray list, not a ‘spring’ list.
c) often, the authors made up the common names ‘off the cuff’, and they did not always reference them in the index.

3. Submit your best educated guesses, informed opinions or wild stabs to me by e-mail (sscott@alaska.net). If you are the person with the most correct answers, you will receive for your efforts, a copy of Arora’s All That The Rain Promises And More.

Here is the ‘Pukey Point Foray List.’

Bell Mottlegill
Burn Site Mycena
Burnt Hedgehog
Chicken Mushroom
Cluster Coincap
Commander
Common Earth-fan
Common Fiber Vase
Conifer Tuft
Conifer Tuft Psilocybe
Conifer-Base Polypore
Crimped Gill
Deceiver
Dung Psilocybe
Dung Round Head
Dung Slime Head
Earth Fan
Fairy Bonnet
Forest Friend
Funnel Chanterelle
Golden Chanterelle (1)
Golden Chanterelle (2)
Golden-gilled Mushroom
Gray Shag
Groundwart
Herald of Winter
June Mushroom
Leaflike Oyster
Milk Bonnet
Milk-drop Bonnet
Milky Cone Cap
Mock Meadow Mushroom
Orange Discus Mushroom
Orange Fuzzyfoot
Orange Stump Mushroom
Orange Woollycap
Pig’s Ear (1)
Pig’s Ear (2)
Pig’s Trotter
Queen’s Coat
Razor Strop Fungus
Red Slime-head
Red Tree Brain
Russula Parasite
Scaly-veiled Galerina
Shaggy Bear
Smoky-gilled Naematoloma
Trumpet Chanterelle
Tufted Collybia
Veiled Fairy Cake
Weeping Widow
Witch’s Hat
Woman on Motorcycle
Wood Woolly-foot

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To the best of my knowledge, NAMA has yet to sanction a list of common mushroom names. Even if they did publish such a list, I doubt that it would eliminate the confusion. The damage is already done. Besides, it makes much more sense (at least to me) to encourage everyone to use the Latin binomial. It is the universal name and one that is unique to one and only one species

BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS!
We still have a number of copies of Arora’s Mushrooms Demystified and All That The Rain Promises And More and Miller’s Mushrooms of North America available. As always they can be purchased at our cost, plus shipping; an amazing deal for our club members!

TWO GENEROUS FELLOW ‘SHROOMERS!

Leon Shernoff recently sent us twenty-five complimentary copies of Mushroom, The Journal of Wild Mushrooming. We will be giving them away at the March meeting on a first come basis. MTJ is a great magazine! It is a quarterly publication and has been around since the fall of 1983. I am fortunate enough to have every issue, and consider the set to be valuable resource material.

And that’s not all! Before Leon took over the magazine with the Winter 2003 issue, Maggie Rogers was the editor/owner. She has graciously granted me permission to use material from prior issues in our newsletter as long as I am faithful to credit the source and author. Thank you, Maggie.

Maggie is a retired librarian. She has been an active NAMA member for many years and is currently on their Education Committee. She also owns Fungal Cave Books, a great source for those “out-of-print/earlier (mushroom) books you didn’t know you needed”. Are you looking for A Monograph of the Genus Aphanomyces, The Clavarias of the U.S. and Canada or Crypotogamic Botany? She is sure to have these titles and many, many more. If you have been searching for a book and can’t seem to find it, give Fungal Cave Books a shot. Call her at (503) 239-4321, or contact her via e-mail at rogersmm@aol.com.

Recently, I received an e-mail from Dr. Ed Berg. (As most of you know, Dr. Berg is an ecologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Along with his duties at the refuge, he also finds time to write an occasional article for the Peninsula Clarion and teach at both the Homer and Soldotna KPC campuses. I have really enjoyed his newspaper articles. They are not only extremely interesting, but he has the ability to present complex material in an easily understood manner.) He had just finished reading Paul Stamets’ Mycelium Running – How Mushrooms Can Help Save The World, and encouraged me to check it out. (Paul Stamets is also the author of several books, including The Mushroom Cultivator and Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms.)

Although I’ve just got a good start on the book, it is definitely a worthwhile read. Mycelium as Nature’s Internet, The Medicinal Mushroom Forest, Mycofiltration, Mycoremediation and Mycopesticides, are just a few of the fascinating chapter titles (and subjects) thoroughly covered in its pages.

From the very first page of his book, Paul Stamets leaves no doubt about his absolute conviction that the mycelial mat that blankets the inhabitable parts of our planet “is the neurological network of nature’ and “that the mycelium operates at a level of complexity that exceeds the computational powers of our most advanced supercomputers.” He speaks of the “mycelium as the Earth’s natural Internet, a consciousness with which we might be able to communicate”. He is so passionate in his position that even the most skeptical will never view the fungi quite the same, again. Far from being a simple life form, they may well be the very fabric that binds all of nature together.

There is an interesting photograph in the first chapter. It is a time lapse photo of a Physarum polycephalum. The slime mold had been placed at the start of a maze. Food was available at both the entrance and the exit, but nothing was provided between. The slime mold successfully navigated the maze by the shortest route, disregarding all dead ends and empty exits, and, the results were the same every time the experiment was conducted! Does that demonstrate fungal intelligence? It would sure appear to be the case.

COSMOPOLITAN MUSHROOMS

You could sum up Webster’s definition of cosmopolitan as 1) that which has world-wide, rather that limited scope and 2) that which is found in most parts of the world and under a variety of ecological conditions. The term is often used in reference to certain common mushroom species, but I have to confess, that mine was a western North American or possibly North American concept of 'cosmopolitan'. That is, until I recently stumbled upon an article by Gary Lincoff in the Winter – 2001 issue of MTJ. In the article, Mushroom Hunters of the Grasslands, Gary relates his experiences finding many of our most common mushrooms not only all across N. A., but also around the globe. I had no idea that you would find Coprinus comatus in Capetown, Pleurotus ostreatus in Spinigar, Agaricus xanthodermus in Tel Aviv, Schizophyllum commune in Nairobi, Agaricus arvensis in Istambul, or Agaricus campestris in all of these places! As Gary put it, “One of the pleasures of hunting mushrooms in exotic places is finding . . . . . the old familiars, the mushroom friends one knows from home, looking a little out of place, perhaps, in some exotic backdrop, but welcomed all the more for their presence in such strange and alien settings.”

You are probably wondering how this article came to be called Mushroom Hunters of the Grasslands? As Gary put it, “we all live in cities, towns or villages . . . . . open spaces, in grasslands, as it were, an artificial space filled with buildings we call homes and stores and schools, and cleared path or roads, and planted trees in designated areas, along streets, in backyards, and in parks. We also have special watered and maintained areas of grass that we call lawns, cemeteries, golf courses and ball fields. We live in a sea of grass . . . . . in fact . . . . . our species could be called ‘the keepers of the grass’.” Man has ever been an itinerant species, and one who is forever modifying his environment. It is just these characteristics that have made it possible for a such large number of mushroom species to successfully colonize so much of the earth.

Gary listed some seventy species, in all. Not surprisingly, many are good edibles. Here are but a few of those: Agaricus arvensis, A. campestris, A. silvicola, Armillaria mellea, Clitocybe nuda, Coprinus comatus, C. atramentarius, Flammulina velutipes, Hericium erinaceus, Laetiporus sulphureus, Leucoagaricus naucinus, Lycoperdon perlatum, L. pyriforme, Pleurotus ostreatus and Pluteus cervinus.

Are you planning to do some traveling. Take the time to check out the fungi. You might run into an old friend! According to Gary there are at least a hundred species that have found their way around the globe!

CLUB DUES
We have received a number of inquiries concerning club dues for 2007. Membership dues for new members have not changed. Student memberships are $10, individuals $15 and family memberships $20. However, sustaining memberships (annual dues for current members) are only $5.

APRIL MEETING WITH LORI TRUMMER
Our April meeting will be the Tree Fungi Workshop led by Lori Trummer. She is a plant pathologist with the U. S. Forest Service. Normally, our meetings are on the first Saturday of the month, but we were unable to schedule the Aquaculture Building for that day. Consequently, we will be meeting on Saturday, April 14th.

DECEMBER MUSHROOM OF THE MONTH

Even with our great prize offer, we did not receive a single response to our December Mushroom of the Month contest. I’m sure that Betty Idleman had it pegged, but wanted to give someone else a shot at it. (She is a two-time winner!) So, here it is again. But, you better hurry, because Betty has our blessing to jump right in there!

This is a mushroom that is wide spread, but not common. Where it is found, it can be locally abundant. I have not personally harvested it on the peninsula, but have heard of at least one instance where it was collected here. This is a gilled mushroom that has been parasitized by another fungus. It is edible and has a very good texture and flavor. The spore print (when obtainable) is white. The spore deposit is that of the parasite and not the host, as the latter has been rendered sterile.

Can you name both the host and the parasite? If you are the first to correctly identify this species, you will win the English china coffee mug bearing a woods scene that includes a number of fungi. (Betty already has one of the mugs, and would probably like to make it a pair!)

In the photo above, the two mushrooms to the left are parasitized, while the specimen to the right is not. All three were growing within a few inches of each other.

Don’t forget to check out our website for the newsletter and the latest updates on the mushrooming prospects! Just get on line and go to http://kpms.blogspot.com/.

COOKING ALASKAN
It seems like a lot of this newsletter has been devoted to talking about books. But, what is a ‘shroomer to do? Mushrooming is a little tough this time of year. But, there are always books! If I spend a little of my free time studying now, maybe I won’t be scratching my head this summer.

I was in one of the local thrift stores recently and stumbled across Cooking Alaskan. Anything Alaskan usually gets my attention. When I opened up this book, I discovered eight pages devoted to gathering and cooking wild mushrooms. Right then, I knew I had to have it, even if it did cost $1.50! Seriously, this is an unbelievable cookbook. It is almost a field guide as well. There are pages and pages devoted to identifying and locating edible wild plants and berries, identifying marine edibles and butchering and preserving fish and game animals.

There are an awful lot of things Alaskans eat that I have never heard of. The book contains hundreds of recipes from fillet of whale with mushroom sauce all the way down to roasted mousenuts. (I can’t imagine how many tundra mice caches you would have to raid to come up with enough of these seeds to make a meal!) There were recipes for things like poochki and petruskie and steamed gumboots. (I’m still not sure I know what a gumboot is! The list could go on and on. There are nearly one hundred and fifty salmon recipes! (Now that is impressive and something that could be pretty useful in this country!

I went on line to see if the book was still in print and was surprised to find that Amazon had it (new) for $13.22. I would say that it is worth every penny and if I didn’t already have a copy, I would buy one.

Here is a recipe for Coprinus comatus (shaggy manes) that sounded awfully good! (I would bet that just about any wild or domestic mushroom would go well, here.)

Casserole Supreme

¼ cup butter or margarine
1 cup finely chopped onions
2 cups shaggy manes
1 cup milk
1 cup homemade mushroom soup
2 pounds broccoli
Salt and pepper
2 cups cubed ham
1 ½ cups stuffing mix

Saute onions in butter until limp; add mushrooms and sauté briefly until tender. Stir in milk and soup. Put one-third of the broccoli in a well-greased casserole dish. Sprinkle with seasonings and put one-third of ham, one-third of sauce and one-third of the stuffing mix on top. Repeat layers until all ingredients are used. Bake at 350 degrees (175 degrees C.) for thirty minutes or until broccoli is tender. (Brussels sprouts or asparagus may be substituted for the broccoli.)

__________

We hope to see you on Saturday. It should be an informative meeting. Be patient, spring is just around the corner. It won’t be long, and the earth will come alive again! Take care,

Steve

Issue 13, Dec. 2006/Jan. 2007

2007-01-19T00:05:00.000-08:00

This newsletter, and the next one, will be bimonthly issues. With winter upon us, there really isn’t much local ‘fungal’ news to write about, and with the busyness of the holiday season there is precious little time to write. (With the April issue we will return to a monthly newsletter.)

What a busy month this has been. Between working full time and being the best grandfather this old grump can be, my days have been pretty full. And, with the holiday season, things have become even more hectic than normal.

It is amazing how fast circumstances can change. Three years ago I only knew a handful of people who lived in Alaska. Now, my wife and I, our four adult children and nine grandchildren are all Alaskans. (Six of the grandchildren live next door!)

If you were to ask any of us if we have any regrets about coming to Alaska, our answer would be; “We only regret that we didn’t come here sooner!” Alaska truly is a great place to live, and Soldotna is a great community to live in.

OUR NEXT MEETING WILL BE ON SATURDAY, JANUARY 6TH, AT 1:00 P.M., IN THE COOK INLET AQUACULTURE BLDG. (40610 K-BEACH ROAD, KENAI).

It is December, and there are still plenty of fresh mushrooms to be had. But, you have to go the Fred Meyer or Safeway to find them, and they come at a fairly stiff price. Even Agaricus bisporus (aka A. brunnescens), the common ‘button mushroom’ is between three and seven dollars a pound.

Safeway has oysters (Pleurotus ostreatus), but they are puny little things. I don’t remember the price, but I do recall almost choking when I looked at the tag. I doubt that these poor little oysters ever saw a real tree. They were probably raised on cottonseed hulls or (at best) sawdust. Although I haven’t tried any of them, I suspect that they have about as much flavor as cardboard!)

Have you seen the chanterelles (Cantharellus formosus) they have at Fred Meyer? They are also anemic specimens (the kind that I would have hidden in the bottom of the basket back in my chanterelle picking days), and they want eighteen to twenty dollars a pound for them! Take a look at the two photos below. This is what a chanterelle should look like!

Some of the chanterelles in this basket would weigh nearly a pound!

If you have children or grandchildren and you can get them interested in mushrooming, you will give them a hobby that will hold their interest for a lifetime.

We are extremely blessed to have such a staggering abundance of edible fungi on the Kenai Peninsula, and so little competition gathering them. (By competitors, I mean humans. There are plenty of bears, birds and especially bugs, vying for the harvest!)

I am reminded of a comment I read recently. When asked for some sage advice for beginning mushroomers, David Arora responded, “Don’t poach on my patches.” That is probably good advice if you live in California, as he does, but here on the peninsula tens of thousands of pounds of edible mushrooms go unharvested every season for lack of pickers.

Blanche Tinius sent me a copy of an interesting article which appeared in the Winter 1986 issue of Mushroom, the Journal of Wild Mushrooming. (MTJ is an excellent magazine and I consider myself fortunate to have every issue since it first came out in the fall of 1983. A few years back the publication changed hands, and for a time it appeared that it might not survive. But, it seems to have made a comeback. I hope so, because my sub-scription is paid up for at least another year!)

The title of the article, A Serious Case of Underpick – Alaska Mushrooming, is as applicable today as it was twenty years ago. The author was Ron Sutcliffe, a Kenai attorney and first president of the Alaska Mycological Society which (at the time) was based in Soldotna.

(I don’t know a lot about AMS, but I believe that it was co-founded by two local botanists, Boyd Shaffer and Janice Schofield. AMS later moved to Homer. Harriette Parker (a Homer resident and author of the book, Alaska’s Mushrooms, A Practical Guide), was actively involved in the organization for a time. Although there are still a number of ‘mushroomers’ in the Homer area, AMS has ceased to exist.)

In the article, Mr. Sutcliff made several very good observations that are worth repeating here.

He began by describing AMS as “composed of about 38 members, 30 of whom” he had “never seen.” He went on to say, “Alaskans have this basic mistrust of anything organized, I guess.” Is it really mistrust, or is it free-spirited independence (a quality that Alaskans are famous for)? I personally think it is the latter.

I also found this comment interesting, “Most of the members join up to get the Spore Print, our publication.” I suspected when we selected that name for our newsletter that it was probably not original, but I had no idea this was also the name of the previous local ‘club pub’.

He went on to lament the serious problem of “underpick” here on the peninsula, and to ponder how severe a problem it must be in the more sparsely populated areas of the state. “There aren’t enough people per square mile here interested in fungi to create a run on the stuff.” If you add to that all the other distractions; salmon fishing, clam digging, berry picking, gardening, hiking etc., it is no wonder that so many tasty treats go untouched.

And, if these distractions are not enough to keep you out of the woods, there are other considerations. Mr. Sutcliffe mentions two reasons “why mushroom hunting doesn’t catch on in a bigger way here: bears . . . . . large coastal versions of the grizzly bear patrol the mushroom grounds” and moose, “big, unpredictable and dangerous” and “they’re stupid as puffballs.” He admits that encounters are rare, but even these extreme odds are enough to deter some.

One thing he failed to mention: the endless miles of roadless wilderness and the possibility of becoming lost. A map and compass or GPS can go a long way toward minimizing this danger. I think we all want to avoid the anxiety connected with a night in the woods, alone and unprepared as well as the possible financial obligations associated with our recovery. Search aircraft cost between $800 and $1,000 per hour and ground operations are also expensive. If and when you are fortunate enough to be found, you will probably be expected to reimburse at least some of these costs!

What should a person take with them when they go mushrooming? Of course, there are a number of things we would all like to have, but can’t honestly call ‘necessities’. A four-wheel drive pickup would be nice, a four-wheeler, salt and freshwater boats and our own personal aircraft. We could even use them for other pursuits, like hunting and fishing. While we’re at it, why not add a pair of well-trained and well-armed mercenaries to the list. They could walk on either side of us and we could devote our full attention to ferreting out fungi! Actually, all we really need is a sturdy picking basket with a knife and brush attached, a day pack with first aid and survival supplies, a map and compass or GPS, proper clothing for the weather and terrain and a good field guide or two. Not much, actually. What other hobby is so gentle on the pocketbook?

Typical gear? Left to right, shotgun and/or bear spray, day pack, basket with brush and knife attached, candles, lighter, tender etc., canteen, first aid kit, TP, map and compass or GPS, mosquito net, waterproof tarp and flashlight.

November Mushroom of the Month

Betty Idleman is the winner of the ‘November mushroom of the Month’ contest. She correctly identified the UFO (unusual fungal oddity) as Phaeolepiota aurea and will receive the English coffee mug. This is her second win, but we can hardly accuse her of ‘hogging’ the prizes. She was gracious enough to wait nearly two weeks before submitting her entry. As you can see from the photo below, this is not your typical ‘Alaskan gold’. Congratulations, Betty!

The photo (which came to us through Blanche Tinius) was such an unusual specimen that we also had a second prize category for the best and most original title. Blanche donated a beautiful 18” x 24” color poster featuring an Alberta mushroom, Leccinum boreale to be awarded to the winner. The entries were forwarded to her, and she selected the winner - "Derriere gigantius" submitted by Cliff Cullings. Congratulations, Cliff!

December Mushroom of the Month

This is a mushroom that is wide spread, but not common. Where it is found, it can be locally abundant. I have not personally harvested it on the peninsula, but have heard of at least one instance where it was collected here. This is a gilled mushroom that has been parasitized by another fungus. It is edible and has a very good texture and flavor. The spore print (when obtainable) is white. The spore deposit is that of the parasite and not the host, as the latter has been rendered sterile.

If you are the first to correctly identify this species, you will receive an English china coffee mug bearing a woods scene which includes a number of fungi.

I recently read some interesting facts about the dangers associated with eating raw mushrooms. I was aware that many mush-rooms which are commonly eaten raw contain enzymes that block the absorption of proteins by our bodies. But, I was not aware that most, if not all mushroom species contain chemical compounds that metabolize into hydrazines. Though the amounts may be small, hydrazines are significant carcinogens and should be avoided at any levels. Fortunately, they are destroyed in the cooking process.

In addition to the protein blocking enzymes and hydrazines, there is also our body’s inability to digest chitin. The cell walls of mushrooms are composed of chitin, a derivative of cellulose. The result is some degree of digestive discomfort (often increasing exponentially with the amount consumed). Cooking does not destroy the chitin, but it does render it less of an irritant to our digestive tract.

The bottom line is that no mushroom should be eaten raw. This shouldn’t be much of a hardship, as mushrooms taste better cooked, anyway!

I was watching a program called “The Origins of Christmas” on the History Channel the other evening. They showed a sketch of the first English Christmas tree. Queen Victoria had just married her German cousin, Prince Albert. Albert brought the custom of ‘decorating the tree’ to England with him. What caught my attention were the ornaments. Many of them were mushroom shaped. This started me on an internet quest to see if mushrooms were in anyway a part of the Holiday celebration.

The first thing I discovered? Almost all northern European countries incorporate mushroom dishes into their holiday fare. Many of these are time-honored dishes that have been served for centuries! If you go online, you might be surprised how many traditional German, Polish and Finnish mushroom recipes you will find!

I also found that mushroom shaped ornaments are still commonly used to decorate the Christmas tree in these countries. It seems that red and white ornaments resembling Amanita muscaria are especially popular.

But, what I found most surprising was the supposed link between Santa Claus and A. muscaria. Of course, Santa Claus has nothing to do with the true meaning of Christmas. In fact, if it were not for the manger scenes, there would be little evidence that Christmas was a Christian celebration or had any biblical basis. Most of what is called Christmas today has been ‘borrowed’ from various Pagan religions.

Today’s Santa Claus is a metamorphosis of ancient mythologies and folklore. Santa has much in common with the Norse Odin or Thor (the German Donar) who wore red robes and rode through the heavens in his golden chariot pulled by horses or goats. The horses have been replaced by reindeer, but much remains the same. (Here is an interesting side note: In folklore, the exertion of Odin’s horses caused a blood tinged froth to drip from their mouths, falling to the earth below. Odin would then strike the earth with his mushroom shaped hammer and mushrooms would grow from the spittle.)

There also appears to be a link to the ancient Lapp shamans of Siberia who used Amanita muscaria as part of their mystic religion. They wore bright red garments and commonly entered home to perform their rituals through a hole in the roof. They would bring their ‘present’ (dried Amanita. muscaria) with them, in a bag.

It is claimed that reindeer have a great fondness for A. muscaria and that if the Lapps want to gather any of these mushrooms they have to find them before the reindeer. A. muscaria evidently has the same effect on reindeer as humans. One result is exaggerated movement (hence the flying reindeer of folklore). Supposedly, each Lapp shaman was also protected by a pair of mushroom-crazed, super reindeer.

Is there really any connection between Amanita muscaria, and Santa? Well, you have a chubby, jumbo-sized, overly-jolly, magical elf (of all things) dressed up like a giant ‘fly-agaric’ going ho, ho, ho all over the place. He is in the company of eight wild-eyed reindeer who can gallop at warp speed and take him anywhere on the earth in the ‘twinkling of an eye’. He is not only the master of time, but space, as well! In spite of his considerable girth, he is an unrivaled contortionist who can enter any home through the roof, fitting his body through the smallest of openings. Once inside, he leaves his brightly wrapped gifts strewn about under the ‘tree’, much like one would find the ‘fly amanitas’ scattered among the forest conifers.

Is there any connection? I’ll let you decide that for yourself.

In spite of the modest turnout at our November meeting, we had an excellent chat session. The two main areas of discussion were 1) potential topics for the upcoming winter and early spring meetings and 2) our dues structure.

There was interest expressed for a microscope workshop, a lichen presentation and field trip, and a polypore presentation and field trip.

Janice Chumley has contacted Dr. Wartenbee, and he has graciously consented to conduct the microscope workshop. We don’t have a firm date at this time, but it will probably be in February at the college. The lab facilities limit the class size, so if you are interested in participating, it is important that you let us know.

Janice has also offered to contact Lori Trummer, a plant pathologist with the Forest Service, about the possibility of a polypore presentation in March or April.

Dr. Berg has expressed an interest in conducting a lichen workshop for the club. Dominique will be contacting him and working out the details.

We should have more information on all three of these programs at our January meeting.

The matter of club dues also came up at the November meeting. I think most of our members are aware that one of our chief goals at KPMS has been to offer them the opportunity to purchase quality resources at affordable prices. Some things we have been able to offer free of charge, others at our cost. Because we buy in quantity, the publishers give us a very generous discount on our book purchases, and since we have a strong membership base we have the funds to purchase in quantity without needing to first collect the money up front.

We do occasionally have expenses that diminish our funds, but these are relatively small. Currently our account is adequate to meet our infrequent expenses and provide the finances for our book purchases.

With these facts in mind, it was decided that we would retain our current dues structure for new members ($10 for students, $15 for singles, and $20 for family memberships), but reduce the sustaining membership to $5 annually.

Our January meeting will be devoted to the election of officers for the 2007 service year. At present the only candidates for the office of president and vice-president are our current office holders. There are two candidates for the office of secretary/treasurer, Janice Chumley and Cliff Cullings. Anyone who wishes to run for one of these offices is encouraged to do so. The deadline to notify us of your candidacy is December 31, 2006.

Janice has ordered 10 copies each of Mushrooms Demystified and All That The Rain Promises And More. We should have them available at the January meeting.

We hope to see you at the meeting. Until then, have a safe and happy holiday season,

Steve

Issue 12, November 2006

2006-11-06T06:59:00.000-08:00

This issue will complete the first full year of publication for The Spore Print. It has been a great first year. We now have nearly 150 KPMS members and friends who receive the newsletter via their e-mail and a growing number who access it on our website at http://kpms.blogspot.com.

I would like to thank all those who have contributed articles and photos. They have been very much appreciated. Keep them coming!

OUR NEXT MEETING WILL BE ON SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11TH, AT 1:00 P.M., IN THE COOK INLET AQUACULTURE BLDG. (40610 K-BEACH ROAD, KENAI).

I think we would all agree that the mushrooming season here on the Kenai Peninsula is over for this year. With the frosty mornings and steadily cooling temperatures it would be reckless, foolhardy (and very unwise) for any mushroom to poke its cap up out of the ground now!

Reflecting back over the summer, I would say that (all things considered) it was a very good season. It started off poorly, but finished up with a bang!

Our first foray to Skilak lake produced almost nothing and our second foray to Caine’s Head State Park in Seward was little better. Then, we finally began to get some rain. We met at Soldotna Creek Park to begin and end our next two forays and each time we nearly filled two or three of the tables with the mushrooms that were collected! Dominique did an excellent job of walking us through the specimens and identifying them for us.

We also had an additional spur-of-the-moment gathering (again, under the covered picnic area at Soldotna Creek Park). It was very short notice and miserable, wet weather, but the turnout was great and everyone came loaded down with specimens. I brought along my two burner propane stove, Dominique supplied the skillets, someone produced a huge tub of potato salad, there were paper plates, plastic silverware and we even had two bottles of homemade wine! After separating out the edible species, Dominique cooked them up for everyone to sample.

It was a great summer. I learned a lot, made some new friends and had a good time. I think that many others could say the same.

For our October meeting we returned to the CIAA building. The fruiting season was nearly over, but everyone was encouraged to bring any specimens they could find. The turnout was good and there were a lot more specimens collected and a greater variety than I had expected.

Instead of our usual identification session, each person present was given two mushroom species and asked to identify them. It was encouraging to see how many folks were successful, especially since no information was given with the mushrooms when they were passed out!

If we were to do this again, I would want each person to know the spore print color of their specimen. I say this because of my own experience. I was handed one specimen that I did not recognize. It had the stature characteristics common to at least a dozen different genera, and because I didn’t have a spore print, I had no way to shorten my list and narrow my search.

As a consequence, I found myself thumbing through my field guides hoping to find a photo of my specimen. This is a dubious (if not downright dangerous) practice, and one I generally try to avoid. Knowing the spore print color would have eliminated a lot of my confusion.

Here is an e-mail I received from Blanche Tinius, a long-time mushroomer and KPMS member from Eagle River. Blanche and her husband Jim, attended the NAMA foray in Hinton, Alberta, and I asked her if she would be willing to share some of that experience with us.

2006 NAMA annual Mushroom Foray
Hinton, Alberta - August 17, 18, 19 & 20.
Hosted by the Edmonton Mycological Society

130 members attended the foray, basking in sunshine and warm temperatures in the 70s and 80s, while Alaska was being drenched by heavy rain. There were 23 States and 4 Canadian Provinces represented. But, as has been the case in so many other forays my husband and I have attended, we were the only Alaskans present. The International Mycological Conference in Australia coincided with the NAMA foray, so there were fewer mycologists present than normal.

Blanche with Hope Miller, who is signing her copy of North American Mushrooms.

The foray was shrouded in sadness over the death of Dr. Orson Miller, who was to have attended. Losing Dr. Miller is a tremendous loss to the mycological world, as well as to his family and friends. His wife, Hope did attend the foray and signed their latest book North American Mushrooms for members who had obtained the book.

There were 16 educational programs offered at the foray, including workshops in photography, paper making, mushroom cultivation and a beginner’s class. There were also a number of presentations. Topics included mushroom toxicity, northern mushrooms, Gulf Coast fungi, unusual fungi, mushroom inhabiting insects and fungi for medicinal purposes. A number of the presentations were taped and DVDs could be purchased at $20 each.

There were 18 forays to various places, ranging from easy to difficult. One of these forays included a stop at Miette Hot Springs in Jasper National Park, where some of the members chose to relax in the mineral springs rather than continue foraging for mushrooms. Another interesting foray was to the Cardinal Divide, which was at an elevation of 7000 feet. It was difficult terrain, but there was lots of wildlife to be seen.

The evening meals were accompanied by presentations and slide shows. After the evening meal, those wishing to return to the Miette Hot Springs for a relaxing soak could catch a waiting bus.

As at all forays, there was a mycophagy session where a number of different species were prepared in various ways and served to the members. It always amazes me, that at these forays we break our own rules. We tell people to eat only one species at a meal so that if there is a reaction, it can be determined which mush-room was the culprit. We also caution that consuming alcohol along with mushrooms can sometimes cause reactions. Yet, at these forays, members consistently consume a number of different species, often along with an alcoholic beverage. Perhaps, when giving this advice, we should tell people “don’t do as I do, but as I say.”

The foray ended with a walk around all the tables by a Mycologist who talked about the mushrooms on display. There were well over 200 different species catalogued. These specimens will be preserved (along with all the related information) and placed in the NY Botanical Gardens. This information will also be shared with the Canadian Government.

These forays are not only very educational, but you meet and get to know many mycologists. They are always willing to help you, and not only at the forays, but whenever you need assistance. You also meet up with old “mushroom” friends and make new ones. It’s an excellent opportunity to exchange information and there are always fungi collected that you don’t find in Alaska or have never seen before.

The next NAMA annual foray will be at Pipestem, WV, Aug 16 - 19th. 2007. I would encourage you to attend and find out for yourself how educational and fun these forays really are.

Blanche also sent the following photo which was taken by her neighbor Scott Amy. My first thought was that this was the south end of a naked, north bound extra-terrestrial, sneaking along on all fours. Then, I began to wonder if there wasn’t a more rational explanation (like someone’s poor pet cat or lap dog had been drinking out of a barrel of toxic waste and lost all its hair and a number of its appendages).

But, it turns out that this ‘creature’ is not other-worldly or the product of some chemical brew. This UFO (unusual fungal oddity) is a common Alaskan mushroom. This is an excellent example of how drastically environmental factors can affect the growth of a mushroom.

November Mushroom Of the Month

This mushroom of the month has two prize categories. If you are the first to correctly identify the genus and species you will receive an English china coffee mug bearing a woods scene which includes a number of fungi. In addition, Blanche has offered to donate an 18” x 24” color poster featuring an Alberta mushroom, Leccinum boreale, for the best and most original whimsical genus and species name given to this mushroom. Since she will be providing the prize, I will forward all entries to her and she will pick the winner.

Ken Gill was our October Mushroom Of The Month winner. He was the first to correctly identify the mushroom in the photo as Agaricus Silvaticus, and will receive a Churchhill china coffee mug for his efforts.

I am somewhat confused on the identification myself, and would have accepted either A. silvaticus or A. haemorrhoidarius as the correct answer. The specimen stained quickly bright cherry-red when cut and remained pinkish-red for a considerable length of time, a characteristic of A. haemorrhoidarius, while A. silvaticus stains more slowly and then quickly fades to brown. You would think that would have been enough to settle the matter, but it appears that the various 'authorities' are not even in agreement. Some claim to have found A. haemorrhoidarius in Alaska, while others say that it occurs only in Europe and that our A. haemorrhoidarius is really just a variant of A. silvaticus. It seems that the spore size is at the heart of the issue with A. silvaticus having larger spores. But, even this distinction appears to be somewhat clouded. So, I decided to accept either answer.

The October Mushroom Of The Month

It may come as a surprise to some, that KPMS has members in such far-flung places as Florida, Missouri, Colorado and Montana. Some of these members correspond regularly, and I asked two of them, Steve Dziekan (central Colorado) and Dick Johnson (northwestern Montana), if they would be willing to share with us something of their mushrooming experiences this last season. Both Steve and Dick were gracious enough to respond.

Steve Dziekan, with a nice collection of yellow chanterelles. The dark patch in the corner of his red basket is a clump blue chanterelles (Polyozellus multiplex). Steve is not only a KPMS member, but a long-time member of the Colorado Mycological Society.

Steve - May started out wet and just when the yellow morels started popping up in large numbers, it dried up and ruined what would have been a banner year. In the northern and central mts. it was the rainiest July and August that I have ever seen, as well as the coolest and the weirdest. The kings came out before the Leccinums, but were plentiful. It was almost too cool for the chanterelles, but I managed to pick and process about 25 lbs. Big clusters of Polyozellus multiplex, oysters and Chroogomphus, but not many Hydnum repandum, (which means less than the few patches that I usually find. All and all, it was the best year in the last 4 or 5. There were also nice clusters of Flammulina velutipes and various Agaricus. We also had a fairly good ‘hawkwing’ year. There are a lot of species of Sarcodon in Colorado, some with very small wings and one with barely an indication of scales and a smooth cap that is somewhat shiny and grayish-brown. All are bitter, with the exception of S. imbricatus.

Take care, Steve

Dick Johnson at a foray in western Montana. The pretty young lady in the foreground is one of my granddaughters, and quite an avid mushroomer, as well. Dick is the long-time president of the Kootenai Valley Mycological Society in Libby, Mt. and a member of the Pacific Northwest Key Council. (Ian Gibson, who produces MatchMaker is also a member of the Key Council.)

Dick (from a recent phone conversation) – Our first outing of the season was a Key Council foray in late May at Tall Timbers, a church camp near Lake Wenatchee in north- central Washington. Though this area can produce an abundance of ‘natural’ morels, it was very dry and we found very little of anything.

The ‘naturals’ were pretty good in northwest Montana. There were no local fires the previous season so the only ‘fire’ morels were in a few Forest Service ‘prescribed burns’. There were some corals, but not the buckets-full that you can pick in a good year. There were no early king boletes, and I did not find any in the fall, either.

The spring was followed by a very hot, dry summer with the only edibles being a few Suillus and an occasional Russula, Agaricus bitorquis or A. silvicola.

(Dick also reminded me of the account of a fatal poisoning attributed to Russula nigricans – Russula previously being considered a ‘safe’ genus with a few species which would, at worst, cause severe intestinal discomfort.)

We had some rain in the late summer and early fall. The chanterelles were spotty with both the yellows and the whites fruiting well in some areas.

The annual Priest Lake, Idaho foray sponsored by the Spokane Mushroom Club was well attended. There was the usual assortment of mushrooms, although no king boletes turned up and the chanterelles and matsutakes were less abundant than normal.

The last three seasons have been hotter and drier than normal resulting in far fewer chanterelles and matsutakes than in previous years.

___________________

One of the benefits of KPMS membership is that you are able to purchase several excellent books at a greatly discounted price through the club. Here is what we have to offer.

We struck a deal with Lone Pine Publishing and are able to get a 40% discount on their books. Lone Pine Publishing has a couple of excellent mushroom field guides we can offer our members at our cost plus shipping. Both are tremendous guides and include many of the species in our area.

There are still a few copies of Orson Miller’s North American Mushrooms available. Our ‘member’ price is $15.00.

We are placing another order for Arora’s Mushrooms Demystified and All That The Rain Promises and More. They will be available at our cost (to members) - $23.00 for MD and $15 for ATTRPAM. (With this order, it will make over 100 copies of these two books that we have purchased!)

I have three copies of A Field Guide to Southern Mushrooms, by Alexander Smith. These are new books that I got from a friend who is a book dealer. I will sell them at my cost, $13.00 each. If you spend any time in the southeastern U.S. it is an excellent resource.

If you are interested in any of these books, let me know or talk with Janice Chumley at the November meeting.

KPMS was given a Canon imageClass D600 series copier. This is a very nice unit that is able to make copies up to 11” x 17” in size. Presently we do all our copying at the UPS Store at a cost of about five cents per copy. This copier will allow us to cut our cost to between two and three cents per copy. The donor wishes to remain anonymous, but they have our thanks for this generous gift.

The mushroom identification class I taught for the community school was really a lot of fun. I had an exceptionally great group, and there was a lot of interaction. Six out of that class are now club members!

Three of the students and myself having a casual conversation the last night of the class.

We hope to see you at the Nov. 11th meeting. We will begin a review of each of the ‘gilled’ families starting with those with white spores.

Until then,

Steve

Issue 11, October 2006

2006-10-23T09:32:00.000-07:00

In the future, I will probably refer to this year as the year of the ‘hedgehogs’ and ‘hawk wings’. For a time, it seemed that every e-mail I received included a photo or two of these species. Orson Miller made the comment in his latest field guide that the largest specimens of hawk wings (Sarcodon imbricatum) that he had ever seen were in collections from Alaska. I’m sure that they couldn’t possibly be any larger than the ones in the photos of this newsletter.

Our September foray took place almost at the peak of the fruiting season. We met under the covered picnic area at Soldotna Creek Park. The turnout was good, and everyone arrived loaded down with mushrooms. We had scores of specimens and dozens of species to identify. The collection filled two of the tables and spilled over onto a third. Dominique took on the task of separating the mushrooms into groups of related genera and then took each group and identified the individual specimens, commenting on their characteristics, edibility etc., and answering any questions that were asked. We are very fortunate to have some-one with his knowledge among our members.

There is another key element that has made our forays a success. We have a ‘core’ group of a dozen or so dedicated ‘shroomers who can be counted on to show up at every gathering regardless of the time, place, or weather. With their enthusiasm and eagerness to learn, I have no doubt that they will be leading the forays and doing much of the identification and explanation in the years to come.

Since the foray, the fruiting flush has been slowly tapering off, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t fresh mushrooms to be found. This wet fall also offers the opportunity to find species that you may not see again for years, if ever. Don’t let the damp weather stop you from getting out and poking around. You might be surprised what you find!

These ‘hawk wings’ were collected by Kathy Matta ‘somewhere’ in Funny River area.

I had to include this photo of Kathy’s monster ‘hedgehog’.

No, this isn’t a photo of Cliff Cullings and his twin brother. I may have ‘doctored’ up the pic to get both views of his ‘twin hedgehogs’ but that mushroom is the real McCoy!

OUR NEXT MEETING WILL BE ON SATUR-DAY, OCTOBER 7TH, AT 1:00 P.M., IN THE COOK INLET AQUACULTURE BUILDING (40610 K-BEACH ROAD, KENAI).

In addition to our regular meeting, we will set aside some time for a mushroom identification and information session, so bring your specimens!

I have taken some time during the last month to review Miller’s new field guide and also to check out the changes in the MatchMaker CD updates. One thing that always amazes me is the number of species that have been reclassified and reassigned to other genera. If you were to do a thorough search of just these two sources, you would probably find at least two dozen species that have new names! (Typically, only the genus changes, although the species name may be slightly altered to be grammatically correct in relationship to the genus.)

How many of these species do you recognize: Cortinarius caperatus, Neolentinus lipideus, Lepista nuda, Suillus ocharaceoroseus, Ptychoverpa bohemica, Phaeolepiota aurea, and Sarcodon imbricatus? Unless you have made a diligent effort to keep up on all the classification changes, most, if not all of these will be unfamiliar names to you. Some of the species above are on their fourth or fifth name change! The ‘gypsy’, C. caperatus was originally placed in Pholiota and later Rozites. What is commonly called ‘Alaskan gold’ was originally classified as Lepiota pyrenacea, changed to Pholiota aurea, later to Togaria aurea and is now known as Phaeolepiota aurea. Then, there are those ‘hawks wings’ you have been collecting and calling Hydnum imbricatum; hasn’t the scientific community told you, that they are now Sarcodon imbricatus!

What about our trusted copies of Mushrooms Demystified, the book we affectionately call the mushroomer’s bible? You most likely have the second edition which was published in 1986 (just twenty short years ago). How outdated is it? There are around one-hundred species names that are now invalid!

Confused? So am I. Someone should come out with a reference book just for all the name changes that have occurred for every mushroom species. I’d buy one in a heartbeat!

Last Month’s Mushroom of the Month

We had two responses for last month’s contest. Both were correct. The mushroom pictured above is Pleurotus ostreatus. The prize was a collecting basket for the first respondent, but, as we only had two, we are giving baskets to both.

Melissa Cates and Betty Idleman will both receive baskets. Melissa had the first correct response and will get her choice of the baskets pictured below:

The photo of October’s mushroom of the month was submitted by Ben Keenan. This is a medium sized mushroom with white flesh and red-brown scales on a white cap. It has close, free gills and a chocolate-brown spore print. But, the feature that makes this mushroom unique is the rapid cherry-red staining of the flesh of the cap and top of the stem when it is cut or bruised. (See the photo below.)

If you are the first to respond with the correct answer, you will receive an English China coffee cup bearing an outdoor scene which includes a number of mushrooms. Fill it with steaming hot coffee, pull out your favorite mushroom field guide, and enjoy!

October Mushroom of the Month

Here is another photo from Ben. Now, this is one man who knows how to build a pizza, and he harvested those mushrooms himself!

We still have a number of copies of Miller’s North American Mushrooms available. We also struck a deal with another publisher to get a deep discount on some great books. Lone Pine Publishing has a couple of excellent mushroom field guides we can offer our members at our cost plus shipping. Both are excellent guides and include many of the species in our area.

Lone Pine Publishing also has several excellent plant books that are applicable for our area. If you are interested in any of these books, let us know. (I won’t list them here. Go to http://www.lonepinepublishing.com/ for their online catalog.) If we have a sufficient response, we will place an order.

One of our goals at KPMS has been to provide our members with quality resources at affordable prices. Some things we have been able to offer free of charge, others at our cost. (It is because we buy in quantity that the publishers give us such a generous discount on our book purchases. And, it is because we have a strong membership base that we have the funds to purchase in quantity without having to first collect the money up front.) In addition to the field guides and identification CD, we hope in the future to make a number of identification keys available for the cost of duplication.

None of this would have been possible had not so many of you been willing to take a chance with KPMS. Thank you for your confidence.

If you are not a member of KPMS, we encourage you to join. The benefits far outweigh the minimal cost.

There are a number of great educational opportunities available through the local Community Schools program this fall. Here is one entry from the brochure.

BEGINNING MUSHROOMING – Acquiring the basic skills necessary to identify mushrooms.

Steve Scott. This is a non-technical course designed to equip the amateur mushroom hunter with the skills necessary to confidently identify their fungal finds using only macroscopic features. The course will also include an over-view of the fungal kingdom and a discussion on mushroom toxins. Tuesdays AND Thursdays, beginning October 3rd and ending October 19th / 6 nights / 7-9pm / Teens and Adults / 6 Min and 12 Max / $15 that goes to Community Schools (Study materials will be provided.)

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I never cease to be amazed by the complex relationships that fungi have developed with other organisms. The mycorrhizal relationship (for example) is extremely important in nature. Mycorrhizal fungi have become so dependent upon a particular tree species that they cannot grow without their host. In addition, recent research has shown that trees deprived of this mutual relationship are unable to successfully compete with those that have formed these mycorrhizal bonds.

I found Dr. Berg’s recent article on lichen, published in the Outdoor section of the Peninsula Clarion, particularly fascinating. (Dr. Berg is a frequent contributor to the Peninsula Clarion and his articles are always interesting.) I had not realized that lichen were such complex organisms. Dr. Berg described them as ‘those curious little “plants” that are a mixture of both fungi and algae. The fungi provide the basic physical structure of the lichen, and the algae provide food for the fungi through photosynthesis.’ He went on to describe their relationship as being less mutualistic or symbiotic and ‘more like captive “farming” of the algae’ to the point where ‘filament type algae . . . . . that normally grow as long chains occur only as single cells within a layer of the fungal body of the lichen, just like carefully planted vegetables in a garden.’ Dr. Berg’s article stirred my curiosity and I really wanted to learn more about this fungal-algal relation. Then the latest issue of the Mycophile came in the mail. To my surprise, the lead article was about ‘Lichenomphalias’.

The author, Andrus Voitk, began the article with this statement: ‘Within the genus Omphalina there are two kinds of mushrooms—those that exist as mushrooms alone and those that exist as the fungal component of a lichen’, and he went on to say that all of the ‘lichenized’ Omphalinas ‘share similar DNA that is different from the rest of the genus’.

As a consequence of this DNA study, there is even a proposal to place these ‘lichenized’ Omphalinas into a new and separate genus—Lichenomphalia.

The focus of Mr. Voitk’s article was not the fungal-algal relationship, but rather, those rare cases where ‘both component organisms exist separately as well as in their combined lichenized form’. Such relationships are so rare that although there are ‘thousands of lichens, very few have a basidiomycete as the fungal partner. Only about twenty species are formed with agarics (mushrooms with cap, stem and gills).’ The result is a fungus, an algae, and a true lichen all interdependent upon one another. (And we refer to them as simple life forms!) Sadly, these specialized ‘foursomes’ are so uncommon and found in such inhospitable environments that few of us will ever see one of them.

Well, so much for my ramblings!

I want to thank all those who submitted photos for the newsletter. If you have an interesting ‘mushroom’ photo, story, joke, comic, recipe or what ever, send it my way. We are always looking for material for the Spore Print. I hope to see you on the 7th of October. Bring a few specimens with you, if you can. Until then, happy hunting,

Steve

Note to our readers: Each issue of the Spore Print also contains an instructional insert. For example, the October issue included an identification key for the seventeen species of Agaricus that probably occur in Alaska. These instructional segments are not posted on the website. Anyone wishing to receive the newsletter in it entirety may contact me at sscott@alaska.net and I will add your name to our mailing list and you will receive each newsletter via e-mail.

Issue 10, September 2006

2006-09-06T20:21:00.000-07:00

Here it is, September already. I am reminded of a quote I read recently, “There comes a time when autumn asks, ‘What have you been doing all summer?’” I’d be tempted to say “What summer?”, but, like most Alaskans, I could look autumn straight in the eye and say “I have tried my best not to waste a single moment of it.”

Both the fishing and the mushrooming started off slow this year. The reds were late, but they closed out the run with a bang (triple the numbers that were forecast). Mushrooming started out much the same, but now, with the abundant rain we have received the last two weeks, it could well turn into a banner year.

Our club foray in Seward produced little in the way of fungal fare, but was a good time, nonetheless. Before I give you my account, I will let Betty Idleman describe her experience.

Our group gathered at Caine’s Head which is down a well potholed gravel road 2 ½ miles past Seward. We climbed both sides of a gut picking mushrooms which Dominique and Steve identified for us. The lack of mushrooms was very disappointing.

Next we gathered about 10 miles before Seward at a turnout along the road. Here the excursion turned into an expedition. We went down the bank and across a creek that runs alongside the road. Then we clawed, crawled, climbed and pulled on blueberry bushes up the steep, steep hill (mountain) to tromp through the wet brush, pushka, devils club, blueberry bushes, deadfalls and holes.

Of course everything in the Seward area is covered with at least 3 inches of wet moss. Stepping over downed trees, there was usually a hole that was covered with brush on the other side. One downed tree was so huge it had to be sat on, and then swiveled on to get to the other side. Of course all that wet moss meant a wet butt. Others were smaller, but you still had to put your knees on them and swivel because it was too high to straddle. Everyone was huffing and puffing and fell at least once. Finally we reached a spot where we were able to slide down the bank and into the creek and cross back to the road. Most of us slid down the steep hill on our butts holding onto blueberry bushes to keep from going too fast and getting hung up in deadfalls. I had only seen about ten different mushrooms and was sweating so badly I got salt in my eyes!

Betty had a lot more to say, and though it might sound like she was complaining, I think she really did enjoy herself.

I was impressed with her stamina. She handled that hike better than some who were twenty years her junior!

Now, let me fill in some of the gaps. First, I have got to say, I fell in love with the Seward area. That coastal forest habitat is really something else. The lush growth and mosses were such a beautiful sight.

Concerning the ‘expedition’ Dominique took us on, Betty did an excellent job of describing the physical torture Dominique put us through, but she didn’t say anything about the mental torment.

As we waded across that creek on our way to the densely wooded hillside behind it, the first thing that caught my eye was the scores of cleanly picked salmon skeletons lying in the water and on the banks. Then there were the tracks, bear tracks everywhere!

After crossing over the creek, we had to pass through about thirty yards of nearly waist high grass; grass that was criss-crossed with bear trails that were so well traveled that the ground had been churned into mud. At this point Dominique began to yell out ‘hey, bear’ or ‘here, bear,’ I wasn’t quite sure which. Even though two of the group, Betty Idleman and Dave Schickendanz were both packing large caliber handguns, and I was clutching my bear spray so tightly my knuckles had turned white, I still felt a twinge of regret for not having the good sense to stay on the other side of the creek.

As we climbed the hill into the thick woods I noticed two things: the huckleberry bushes were picked nearly clean and there were piles of bear poo everywhere. Some of those piles could easily have filled one of those five-quart ice cream buckets. And Dominique was still calling out ‘hey bear’ or ‘here bear!’ I could see we had a dilemma. On the one hand, I wasn’t really sure we wanted to advertise our presence, but on the other, I instinctively knew I didn’t want to stumble onto a sleeping brown; something we could have easily done in that dense undergrowth. The one thing I did know for sure was that I wanted to stay close to the group.

Not being a native Alaskan, I had no idea that I needed a rain suit for a short hike through the woods. When we finally got back to the creek, it didn’t take any urging to get me to slide down the bank and into the knee deep water. Why should it, I was already soaked all the way up to my armpits. And if this was not torment enough, I hadn’t found a single mushroom! Well, so much for Seward.

(Actually, I really did have a good time, but don’t tell Dominique. And by the way, I went out the next day and bought rain bibs and a jacket.)

You are probably looking at this photo and saying, ‘what is this suppose to be?’ This is the stuff Dominique took us through. Believe it or not, there is a string of at least a half-dozen people not more than fifteen or twenty feet behind the one you can see!

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Then we had the little impromptu gathering at the Soldotna Creek Park.

The weather was miserable and had been for several days. If it hadn’t been for a handful of hardy souls who had committed to come, I would have been tempted to call the whole thing off. Boy was I surprised when I pulled into the park! A fair number of the folks had arrived before me and two of the tables under the covered picnic area were nearly covered with mushrooms! They had to have been out picking in the rain to come up with so many specimens. This was only the beginning of what would be a great evening!

I had thrown in my little two-burner propane stove, and Dominique had brought along cooking supplies. Someone in the group had thought to bring paper plates and plastic silverware. There were a couple of bottles of homemade wine (blackberry and fireweed) and a huge tub of potato salad. So, after we had our harvest identified, we cooked up the edible ones for all to sample. I kept an eye on the obituaries in the Clarion over the next few days and didn’t see any names I recognized, so I guess everyone survived!

Here is an interesting bit of trivia. A number of mushroom clubs throw a banquet for their members at the end of the mushrooming season. Of course, all the dishes contain mushrooms which these members have collected and preserved in anticipation of this feast. This banquet has almost universally become known as the ‘Survivor’s Banquet.’

So what edible species did we collect? This is only a partial list dredged up from my memory, but some of the edible species collected were Armillaria mellea, Boletus edulis, Bovista plumbea, Flammulina velutipes, Laccaria laccata, Lactarius deliciosus, Lycoperdon perlatum, Lycoperdon pyriforme and Russula claroflava.

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I am sure many of you read and enjoyed the ‘mushrooming’ article that appeared in the Peninsula Clarion. The article was written by Patrice Kohl. She was at the Soldotna Creek Park gathering, but I first met her through my daughter at the Skilak Lake foray. I knew she worked at the Clarion, but had no idea she was a reporter. The front page article in the paper the following Thursday came as quite a surprise. Not only did Patrice do a great job, but KPMS got some positive community exposure. Thanks Patrice.

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I would like to thank all those who submitted photos for this issue of the Spore Print. There was a great response and I received a number of excellent photos. Unfortunately, with so little space, I couldn’t use them all.

OUR NEXT FORAY WILL BE SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2ND. WE WILL MEET AT 9:00 A.M. AT SOLDOTNA CREEK PARK. FROM THERE, WE WILL BREAK UP INTO GROUPS, COLLECT MUSHROOMS UNTIL 12 NOON, THEN RETURN TO THE PARK FOR AN IDENTIFICATION AND DISCUSSION TIME.

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We still have a number of copies of Orson Miller’s North American Mushrooms, A Field Guide to Edible And Inedible Fungi, a few copies of Arora’s Mushroom’s Demystified, and a one copy of All That the Rain Promises and More available. As always, member prices are half of the retail price plus our shipping costs. This is a real deal and a great opportunity to build up your reference library.

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Steve Scott. This is a non-technical course designed to equip the amateur mushroom hunter with the skills necessary to confidently identify their fungal finds using only macroscopic features. The course will also include an overview of the fungal kingdom and a discussion on mushroom toxins. Tuesdays AND Thursdays, beginning October 3rd and ending October 19th / 6 nights / 7-9pm / Teens and Adults / 6 Min and 12 Max / $15 that goes to Community Schools (Study materials will be provided.)

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August’s ‘Mushroom of the Month’ Photo

The picture above was the August ‘Mushroom of the Month,’ Agaricus arvensis. This species is easily identified by its chocolate brown spore print, anise odor, habit of growing in grassy areas, and the cogwheel pattern produced in the unbroken veil as the cap expands.

For the second straight month, the ‘Mushroom of the Month’ went unidentified and our prize unclaimed. We did not receive a single response. It may be that our prize (your name and achievement immortalized in our newsletter) was not enticing enough. This month we have upped the ante. If you are the first to respond with the correct answer, you will receive a beautiful mushroom picking basket courtesy of KPMS!

The September Mushroom of the Month

This edible species is easily distinguished by its pleasant, fruity odor, lilac to lilac-gray spore print, lack of a stipe, off-center attachment, and habit of growing on dead hardwoods (especially cottonwoods).

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There were a number of inquiries concerning our absence at the fair. I am not sure just what happened, but somehow we dropped the ball and failed to reserve a booth before the registration deadline.

With all of this rain, I am expecting a great foray on September 2nd. And, if the rain continues until then we should see a number of boletes like the one below. Unfortunately, the moose had been chewing on it, but it was free of maggots!

I’m only kidding, but don’t you wish they got this large?

I have included a couple of short reminders at the end of this newsletter. The first is a list of the proper steps to take when collecting mushrooms, and the second (if you plan on eating any of the specimens you have collected) is a list of the precautions you should be taking to avoid mushroom poisoning. I would like to credit the original authors, but haven’t a clue who they were. I suspect that these lists have been in circulation so long, and revised so many times that the original penmen would not even recognize them. But, isn’t that the way it often is with good advice?

I hope to see you at the foray. Until then I will leave you with this wise caution I once heard from an old, old ‘shroomer, “there are old mushroomers and there are bold mushroomers, but there are no old, bold mushroomers.” See you on the 2nd,

Steve

KPMS Contact information:
Steve Scott, President sscott@alaska.net
Dominique Collet, Vice-President gastrancitrus@yahoo.com
Janice Chumley, Secretary-Treasurer weraftalaska@gci.net

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THE PROPER STEPS TO
MUSHROOM COLLECTION AND IDENTIFICATION

1. Carefully collect the complete fruiting body (both above and below ground level). A deadly Amanita species could easily be confused with an edible young Agaricus or a Lepiota if the Amanita’s stipe is cut or broken off. Whenever possible, gather specimens in various stages of development.

2. Specimens should be carefully cleaned. A sharp knife and soft brush are important additions to your gathering basket. Do not mix species. Carry small paper bags or wax paper to wrap and separate your collection.

3. Note the habitat in which you find your specimen. Tree associations, amount of direct light, aspect, substrate etc. are all clues that will aid you in identifying your mushroom. Make copies of the ‘COLLECTION AND IDENTIFICATION RECORD’ available through KPMS and use them. It is an extremely useful tool.

4. Take a spore print as soon as possible. Without a spore print your ‘identification’ is little more than a guess! Spore prints are obtained by cutting the stem of a mushroom flush with the cap and placing the cap ‘gill side’ down on white paper. On the ‘COLLECTION AND IDENTIFICATION RECORD’ there is an oval containing both a black and a white surface. This will give a truer color than a single background. With older specimens, covering the cap with a moist paper towel will often encourage a ‘tired’ mushroom to release additional spores. When attempting to obtain a print from a bolete or a wet, ‘gilled’ specimen elevate the cap slightly off the paper with toothpicks. The results will be much better and the color truer.

5. Learn to use identification keys. Any good field guide will include identification keys. MUSHROOMS DEMYSTIFIED has excellent ones. The MATCHMAKER CD is another excellent method of ‘keying’ out your specimen. Do not rely on a picture in a field guide for your identification. Again, do not rely on a picture in a field guide for your identification. And again, do not rely on a picture in a field guide for your identification. Even good photos are far, far inferior to a key. (It should be noted that not all specimens will ‘key out’, nor does any field guide contain every species (especially those that are uncommon).

6. Whenever possible, confirm your identification with an experienced mushroomer.

If you will follow the suggestions above and learn to use the identification keys effectively, you will quickly become proficient in identifying mushrooms to genus and species. But, there are no shortcuts. Proficiency comes with patience and study.

ENJOYING MUSHROOMS WITHOUT BEING POISONED

The fact that many mushrooms are edible is undoubtedly the reason most are attracted to the hobby. And, for those of us who enjoy wild mushrooms, this continues to be an area of interest. But, not all mushroom species are edible, and the fact that a mushroom is considered edible does not mean that some individuals will not find it toxic to them. We do not encourage anyone to eat wild mushrooms, but if you chose to do so, the following cautions should be carefully followed.

1. Learn to recognize a few species that are easy to identify and have no ‘look-alikes,’ and eat only those. Leave all of the rest alone (enjoying them for their beauty only).

2. Examine and identify each specimen. A poisonous ‘look-alike’ may be mixed in. Do not eat any mushroom that you have not positively (without any question or doubt) identified. (The old sayings, ‘when in doubt, throw it out,’ and ‘there are old mushroomers and bold mushroomers, but no old, bold mushroomers’ are words of wisdom.)

3. Keep specimens you plan to eat separate from any others you may have collected.

4. Always cook wild mushrooms. Most edible species contain toxins that are destroyed in the cooking process. Cooking also makes the complex proteins more digestible.

5. Save out a few specimens from each batch that you plan to consume. These are for identification purposes in case you do get sick.

6. Eat only fresh mushrooms. Refrigerate and eat or preserve immediately. Spoiled mushrooms will make you sick, just as any spoiled food will.

7. Eat only a small amount of a ‘new’ kind the first time. Body chemistries differ, and not all individuals are able to eat every ‘edible’ mushroom species.

8. Do not gather mushrooms for the table from any area where pesticides, herbicides or chemical fertilizers have been used. Mushrooms are ‘decomposers’ and will concentrate chemical residues. Areas such as city parks, lawns around public buildings and schools, road right-of-ways etc. are particularly hazardous. NAMA (North American Mycological Association) has kept thorough records of mushroom poisonings for a number of years and has verified a number of instances where edible mushrooms caused serious poisonings because of chemical contamination.

9. Limit or abstain from alcohol consumption or anti-depressant drugs when you eat wild mushrooms.

10. Do not serve wild mushrooms to small children or those that are weak or chronically ill.

Although fatalities from mushroom consumption are actually quite rare, there are a number of species which will cause severe gastro-intestinal illness. Mycophagy (the eating of mushrooms), can be enjoyable, but it demands the utmost care and caution.

Issue 9, August 2006

2006-07-30T00:17:00.000-07:00

Yet another month has forever slipped away. Where has the summer gone? This season has had its frustrations, as well. The weather has been unseasonably cool, gardens have not done as well as usual, the Kenai has been closed to fishing for ‘reds’ and my mushrooming success has been far from outstanding. I didn’t even mention the fact that our roads, campgrounds and businesses are plugged with tourists! But, we haven’t had the hot, dry weather that has plagued the western half of the lower 48 with temperatures reaching the triple digits in Seattle and Portland and 120 degrees in South Dakota! Then, there are the forest fires from Arizona to Montana! All things considered, I would say we are fortunate to live in Alaska and particularly blessed to live here on the beautiful Kenai Peninsula!

Our foray on the first Saturday of July yielded an interesting assortment of mushrooms. There were a number of nice boletes (Boletes edulis), two or three species of Leccinum, a couple of shelved clusters of ‘oysters’ (Pleurotus ostreatus), a Russula or two and the usual assortment of LBM’s.

Frank Kufel submitted these photos of his grandsons with the morels they harvested from the burn on Skilak Lake. Access was tough, but from the pics, I would say it was worth the effort! Thanks Frank.

Our next foray will be August 5th. We will be traveling to Seward. Our destination will be the Caine’s Head trail and Caine’s Head State Recreation Area.

We will be traveling to Seward to forage along the Caine’s Head trail south of Lowell Point. It should be an interesting trip. There are a number of species of fungi common to the coastal forests that are seldom (if ever) found in the Kenai River drainage. Dominique Collet is familiar with the area and will lead the foray. (He is a wealth of knowledge and not only knows his fungi, but the native plants as well!)

If you plan to attend and would like to carpool with someone or provide a ride to others, please let me know so that we can work out the details.

We will be leaving from the back parking lot of Fred Meyer at 8:00 a.m. sharp and should arrive in Seward around 10:00 a.m. You can expect to be back at the trailhead around 4:00 p.m. for the trip home to Soldotna.

To get to the Caine’s Head trailhead, follow Hwy. 9 through Seward, turn right on Railway Avenue, go two blocks and turn left on Lowell Point Road. From there, it is approximately two and one-half miles to Lowell Point and Caine’s Head trailhead. The trail runs parallel to the shoreline of Resurrection Bay and is about two and one-half miles long.

Bring a lunch, a sturdy picking basket and dress appropriately for the weather. It should be a lot of fun!

The newsletter and club events can be found on our website at http://kpms.blogspot.com/. Share the address with your friends!

The photo above was the mushroom of the month for July. We promised you that if you would send us an e-mail with the correct genus and species name you would win a prize. No, it wasn’t a week for two in Hawaii, but it was something almost as good – you would have had your name and achievement immortalized in print in this issue of the newsletter! Alas, the prize went unclaimed. There was not a single response. But, all is not lost. In this issue of the Spore Print is a new ‘Mushroom of the Month’ and we are still offering the same great prize to anyone who knows its identity.

The specimen above was collected from a well-rotted log in the wooded area behind the Catholic Church in Soldotna. The species is Lycogala epidendron, a Myxomycetes or slime mold. Slime molds were traditionally studied with fungi, but have recently been moved to the Kingdom Protozoa. The common name for this fungus(?) is ‘Wolf Milk’, a name derived from the thick pink ooze that flows from the pea-sized balls when they are cut or bruised. This is a common species and is found throughout much of the Pacific Northwest. Though it is not an edible species, it is none-the-less interesting, unique and even beautiful in its own way.

The August Mushroom Of The Month

The two photos above are of the same mushroom species. In the upper photo, my granddaughter is holding a mature specimen, while in the lower photo the young ‘twins’ still have the veil intact. This species is easily identified by its anise odor, habit of growing in grassy areas and the cogwheel pattern produced in the unbroken veil as the cap expands.

Send us an e-mail with the correct genus and species name and just as we promised, YOU will have your name and achievement immortalized in print in our next newsletter.

The order we placed for Dr. Miller’s book, North American Mushrooms, A Field Guide To Edible and Inedible Fungi has finally arrived. In response to demand for the book, we ordered 36 copies. As usual, the cost for members is our cost (50% of retail and postage), $15.00. That is an $11.00 savings over the bookstore price! We will have copies available at the foray or you may contact me and make arrangements to pick up your copy.

It is an excellent work and well worth the money. The book is 584 pages with over 600 excellent photos and species descriptions. A large number of Alaskan and Canadian species are represented. Issue #7 of the Spore Print has a more comprehensive review of this great book.

Sadly, as I reported last month, Dr. Miller has passed away. His death is a great loss to the amateur mushrooming community. May his funerary always be festooned with fairy rings.

A final reminder: The 2006 NAMA (North American Mycological Association) Foray will be held in Hinton, Alberta, August 17-20. There is still time to register. Details and a registration form can be found on the NAMA website at www.namyco.org.

The Edmonton Mycological Society will act as host and Dr. Markus Thormann will be one of the presenters and identifiers. It would be a great opportunity for you to meet ‘shroomers’ from all across the U.S. and Canada and a tremendously valuable learning experience!

The Alaska State Fair in Ninilchik is coming soon. We are looking for volunteers to man the club booth. If you are willing to help, please let me know no later than August 10th.

It is a great opportunity to meet folks, make new friends and share your enthusiasm for mushrooming with others!

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR ALL USERS OF MATCHMAKER

There are two new illustration packages available for MatchMaker on the internet for free download: These are p173-180 and p181-188.exe. They are downloaded in the usually way:

a) save them and run from your hard disc (don't try to run them on the website), click unzip, ok, close,

b) choose Refresh All Illustrations on the Advanced menu of MatchMaker to integrate them into the program. To get these updates, go to Ian Gibson’s website at:
http://www.islandnet.com/~ig/update.htm

You can also download free, the latest update of the MatchMaker program at the same website. Version 1.2 offers

1) up-dated name changes

2) a glossary that has tripled in size to include all technical terms and some new glossary illustrations (check out Drew Parker's beautiful illustrations of cystidium shapes)

3) an index to all species on the List menu

4) non-gilled descriptions integrated so that they do not need to be installed separately

5) a search feature that is now case insensitive by default to conform to what is expected by Windows users

6) the correction of a bug in the Quiz program that was causing problems with newly added illustrations

7) a new splash screen

This update does not include the synoptic key for non-gilled species which will be a part of the forthcoming Version 2.0.

Ian Gibson has included the following instructions for updating to Version 1.2. These instructions are also found on the website.

1. Download update12.exe from the website given above.

2. Double click on the file update12.exe in the folder where you have downloaded the file. Click OK, Unzip, Close. This will extract the setup.exe file, several .cab files, setup.lst, WhatsNew.txt, and readme.txt to C:\Program Files\MatchMaker_Setup_04\.

3. Uninstall the old MatchMaker version. In Windows 98 or Windows XP you do this by Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Add or Remove New Programs -> MatchMaker, and you will be given the option to uninstall. A notice may say that it was unable to remove the folder completely. This is because it will still contain the update illustrations. Do not remove them.

4. Double click on the setup.exe file mentioned above that is in C:\Program Files\MatchMaker_Setup_04\, and follow screen directions to install MatchMaker.

5. Go to the new C:\Program Files\Match-Maker\ folder and double click Name-Changes.exe. This will copy many illustrations on your CD under their new names so they can be used by the new program.

6. Load the MatchMaker program and click Refresh All Illustrations on the Advanced menu.

If you are using Windows XP this download should give you no difficulty. If you are running an earlier version of Windows (Windows 98 for example) the download may not be successful.

This is due to a bug in the original Visual Basic 6 setup program which has since been solved.

There are now separate downloads for users of Windows XP and for users of earlier versions of Windows. This is just a precaution: usually either one will work on any system.

Do not forget to uninstall the old version before installing the new one.

When you are updating, you do not delete the illustrations.

The update site address for those with something other than Windows XP is:
http://www.islandnet.com/~ig/update.htm

If you are unfamiliar with MatchMaker, it is a tremendous resource. There is nothing else out there that even begins to compare with this program. Ian Gibson, his son and others have put thousands of hours into producing MatchMaker and they have made it available free of charge! It is a Windows based program that contains nearly 3500 photos and descriptive text for 4000 mush-room species. It is built around an identification program for gilled mushroom species, but it is loaded with additional features such as an extensive glossary, range maps, links to other great sites and a quiz feature. I have been told that if just the descriptive text and photos were to be put into book form the volume would be over 5500 pages! I can’t say enough about this amazing program! If you don’t have it, take the time to load it onto your PC. If you are currently using MatchMaker, it is well worth your time and effort to load on the new version.

I had originally planned to include a couple of mushroom recipes, but after giving it some thought, I felt that it might be more useful to offer a list of good mushroom cookbooks. No personal mycology library is complete without at least a few recipe books. After all, for most of us, the reason we are out foraging for fungi is to turn them into food. My list is not in any particular order, but the ones I am familiar with and consider to be excellent books will have an * before the title.

Mushroom Cookbooks:

1. *Mushroom by Johnny Acton and Nick Sandler (160 pages).
2. Mushrooms by Rita Rosenberg (170 pages).
3. The Edible Mushroom: A Gourmet Cook’s Guide by Margaret Leibenstein (206 pages).
4.*Wild About Mushrooms: A Cookbook for Feasters and Foragers by Louise Freedman (239 pages).
5. The Savory Mushroom: Cooking with Wild and Cultivated Mushrooms by Bill Jones (200 pages).
6. The Complete Mushroom Book: Savory Recipes For Wild And Cultivated Varieties by Antonio Carluccio (224 pages)
7. *Hope’s Mushroom Cookbook by Hope Miller (221 pages).
8. *Wild Mushroom Recipes by the Puget Sound Mycological Society (178 pages).
9. Mushrooms: Wild and Tamed by Rita Rosenberg (170 pages).
10 The Mushroom Lover’s Mushroom Cookbook and Primer by Amy Farges (340 pages).

Mushroom Books That Contain Recipes:

1. *Edible Wild Mushrooms of North America: A Field-To-Kitchen Guide by David W. Fischer and Alan E. Bessette.
2. *The Savory Wild Mushroom by Margaret McKenny.
3. *The Ultimate Mushroom Book by Peter Jordan and Steven Wheeler.
4. Foraging For Edible Wild Mushrooms by Karen and Richard Haard.

There are also a number of excellent web sites that have mushroom recipes. You should have no trouble finding recipes for any species or dish that you would like to prepare.

With this issue of the Spore Print I had planned to begin a series on IDENTIFYING GILLED MUSHROOMS TO GENUS using three basic characteristics of the fruit body: 1) spore print color, 2) stature type and 3) a combination of growth habit and habitat. The last month has been so hectic that I wasn’t able to get it together. I hope to begin with the next issue.

Anyone who has spent any time at all looking for mushrooms in Alaska soon realizes that one of the most common mushroom genera encountered during the summer months is Leccinum. Though not considered the choicest fungi for the table, they are (for most folks) edible, and if prepared properly, can be quite good. Anyone can quickly learn to identify the genus, but separating the different species can be much more difficult. In the pages that follow you will find a flow chart and brief descriptive text which I think will help you identify the various species you might encounter.

We hope to see you at the Caines Head foray. Until then, take care and happy hunting,

Steve

* Here is a helpful FLOW CHART FOR IDENTIFYING LECCINUM SPECIES, including ALASKAN LECCINUM SPECIES. Click "Download", and then on the next screen, click "Download the file now." (Forgive the ads, it is a free file hosting site. )

Issue 8, July 2006

2006-06-29T18:27:00.000-07:00

Another month is just about gone and there are still very few mushrooms to be found. The combination of a slow warm up and very dry weather has made for a less than fruitful spring. But, with the recent rains and a forecast for more of the same, that should all change. By our next foray, we should see quite a number of species fruiting.

Our next foray will be Saturday, July 1st. We will meet at the Soldotna Creek Park (across from Safeway) at 9:00 a.m. From there we will break up into groups and go out gathering mushrooms. At 12:00, everyone will meet back at the park to identify and discuss what has been gathered.

There were only about fifteen people that attended our June 7th foray at the lower campground on Skilak Lake. The small turn-out was not surprising considering the very dry conditions and the competition from a number of other community events that weekend. When we gathered back at the camp area we had collected (excluding the polypores) a total of five species. A handful of Gyromitras, a couple of Hellevellas, a few morels and two different gilled specimens that were already nearly dried out. But, in spite of the dismal harvest, every one seemed to enjoy themselves.

We have placed an order for twenty-five copies of Dr. Miller’s book, North American Mushrooms, A Field Guide To Edible and Inedible Fungi. Those that responded to my e-mail and requested the book will have first opportunity to pick it up at our cost (50% of retail and postage) which will be somewhere between $15.00 and $16.00. If you would like a copy and did not get on the order list, all is not lost, we will place another order as interest warrants.

Sadly, the author, Dr. Orson K. Miller, Jr. passed away about a week ago. He was one of the ‘old guard’ (most of whom are no longer with us). His infectious enthusiasm stirred scores to pursue a career in mycology. In addition to his teaching career, he was a well known figure among the amateur mushrooming community, often as a guest speaker at local mushroom clubs or acting as an identifier at forays. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him.

Mushroom Of The Month

This is a new addition to our newsletter. During the mushroom fruiting season we will include a photo each month of a local mushroom species for our readers to identify.

This particular species is not uncommon, but may be easily overlooked. The pinkish fruits (which have the appearance of small puffballs) are no larger than a pea. When crushed they exude a pinkish paste.

Send us an e-mail with the correct genus and species name and you will have your name and achievement immortalized in print in our next newsletter.

Just a reminder: The 2006 NAMA (North American Mycological Association) Foray will be held in Hinton, Alberta, August 17-20. Details and a registration form can be found on the NAMA website at www.namyco.org.

The Edmonton Mycological Society will act as host and Dr. Markus Thormann will be one of the presenters and identifiers. It would be a great opportunity for you to meet ‘shroomers’ from all across the U.S. and Canada and a tremendously valuable learning experience!

Above is a photo of the KPMS booth at the Kenai River festival. We shared the space with Dominique Collet who had some of his beautiful art work on display. Even though the weather was cold and wet we still had quite a few folks stop by. We did not have any fresh mushrooms to display, but should have plenty when we have our booth at the fair this fall.

Don’t forget to check out our website for the newsletter and the latest updates on the mushrooming prospects! Just get on line and go to http://kpms.blogspot.com/.

Have a safe and happy Fourth of July!

Well, we have had several good rains since I began to put together the newsletter. I’ve been out numerous times looking for an early flush of those delicious King Boletes, but I guess they just aren’t up yet. You know that I would be the first to let you all know if I was fortunate enough to find anything. Oops, how did this photo get in here?

It kind of reminds me of the time I called up a friend of mine who lived in the Yaak (back when I still lived in Montana). He said he had been our all morning looking for morels but hadn’t found any. “Too early,” he said. Well, I paid a surprise visit and what do you suppose he had laying out to dry all over his kitchen counter top. Mushroomers are a notoriously secretive bunch, but to out and out lie to me? I would have never done that!!

IDENTIFYING ‘GILLED’ MUSHROOMS TO GENUS

In the next several issues of the Spore Print we will be looking at the characteristics that make a mushroom unique and teaching you an identification method that will make it possible for you to identify most ‘gilled’ mushrooms to the ‘genus’ level. We will be considering three basic aspects of a mushroom, 1) spore print color, 2) stature type and 3) a combination of growth habit and habitat. As we progress, we will be constructing an identification chart, which when completed will help you to identify 162 genera of ‘gilled’ mushrooms.

It has been my observation that most mushroomers never advance beyond becoming familiar with a few species. These are usually mushrooms that they have had identified for them. If you were to ask them what characteristics make a particular mushroom distinctive and identifiable to them, they would probably find it very difficult to describe any specific features.

There is nothing wrong with learning by rote, but as a consequence, there is often no real understanding of what makes one species of mushroom different from another. We would like to remedy that.

Time constraints do not permit me to begin the series with this issue, but we will begin with the August Spore Print.

We hope to see at the foray, July 1st. Until then, happy hunting!

Steve

Issue 7, June 2006

2006-05-27T17:14:00.000-07:00

Well, another month has come and gone. After six dreary months of winter the land is coming to life again. We are finally seeing 60 degree days, the trees are budding out, the grass is greening up and the mushrooms are beginning to appear. I have stumbled onto a Gyromitra or two and handful of Helvellas. Dominique has found a few Verpas and a dozen a dozen morels! We also heard a report that some are finding morels around Sterling. If you have opportunity, get out and see what you can find.

Our first foray of the season is only a week away. By then the soil will have warmed to around 50 degrees, enough to allow the morels to fruit. All that is needed now are a few more warm days and a good rain to bring on a bountiful harvest.

CIRCLE SATURDAY, JUNE 3RD ON YOUR CALENDAR IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN ATTENDING THE FORAY.

Our plan is to gather at the camp area on the lower end of Skilak Lake between 8:30 and 9:00 a.m. From there we will break up into groups and head out for some picking. At noon the groups will return to the campground to compare and identify what they have found.

We plan to have a very short meeting after the identification session to discuss the KPMS booth at the Kenai River Festival. Volunteers are needed to look for fresh specimens to display there. A few volunteers are also needed to help man the booth.

Following the meeting we would like to have a potluck-barbecue as an opportunity to get acquainted with one another. If you plan to stay for the potluck (and we hope you will), bring your own plate, silverware, etc, some kind of potluck dish and your own meat for the grill. I will bring one grill. If we can come up with another and a table or two that should be sufficient.

We had originally talked about boating folks across to the burn area. It would have been an expensive logistics and liability nightmare for the club to make it happen. But, we encourage those with boats (who are willing to do so) to check out the burn. And, if you have an extra seat or two and wouldn’t mind taking someone across, that would be a great help. Those who do not wish to go across to the burn should still find good picking along the Skilak Lake Road. If the burn turns out to be extremely productive, we will attempt a follow-up foray so that all who choose to will have the opportunity to pick there.

Please note: The burn is on the Refuge. The US F & W Service will not allow any com-mercial harvesting. But, the burn is open to personal use picking without a permit.

Please leave your pets at home. Dogs and wildlife are a volatile combination that could potentially place others in your group in a very, very dangerous situation.

Also, unless you know the area well, it would be wise to procure a topo map and carry a compass or gps unit. It is amazing how quickly a person can get turned around when they are walking along with their eyes to the ground searching for mushrooms!

Just a reminder to those who might happen to be in the Anchorage area over the Memorial Day weekend – Take the time and meet Blanche and Jim Tinius (KPMS members from the Eagle River area and very knowledgeable mushroomers) who will be offering their annual Morel program at the Eagle River Nature Center on Sunday, May 28th at 2 pm. The program will include a slide presentation which will be followed by a foray.

The 2006 NAMA (North American Mycological Association) Foray will be held in Hinton, Alberta, August 17-20. Details and a registration form can be found on the NAMA website at www.namyco.org.

Blanche also sent me a couple of fliers for a mushroom foray/workshop which will be conducted by Chris Riggio. The flyer reads: ‘Join mushroom enthusiast Chris Riggio on a foray into the forests of the Kenai Peninsula. Class includes macroscopic features, species identification, habitat, cooking, etc.’ The three day workshop will be held at Across the BayTent and Breakfast in Kasitsna Bay, across from Homer Spit. Cost is $340 per person and includes class, transportation, lodging and meals. If this sounds like something you might be interested in, contact Chris at 345-2571 or 235-3633.

Dominique has completed his insect field guide. It is going through final review at the University and will soon be headed to the printer. It is a very comprehensive guide and a quality work.

As good as that news is, I have something better – Dominique has secured a grant to produce a field guide of Alaskan mushroom species. It will be a two year project. As a club, we can be a great help to him. There is a tremendous amount of field data that must be collected. Any and all of us, no matter what our level of knowledge can gather specimens and maintain accurate records. Some with a little more knowledge and experience could even help prepare the text. This is a win-win opportunity for the club with the end result being the first comprehensive field guide of Alaskan mushroom species. I can’t think of anyone more suited to this task or that would turn out a better product than Dominique.

Don’t forget to check out our website at http://kpms.blogspot.com.

A Short List Of Spring Mushrooms

Here is a list of the spring species you are most apt to encounter. Some are early spring species, others appear in the late spring and some (such as Boletus edulis and Agaricus silvicola) often have both a spring and fall fruiting. The majority of these mushrooms are non-gilled, though there are a few gilled species listed that fruit in the spring.

The species I have referenced below are those that have been collected in Alaska or are commonly found in northern British Columbia and probably also occur in Alaska.

Photos and complete descriptions of most of these species can be found in Arora’s Mushrooms Demystified or All That The Rain Promises And More, and all may be found on the MatchMaker CD.

Non-Gilled Species

Verpa bohemica
Verpa conica
Morchella elata group
Morchella atrotomentosa
Morchella angustaceps
Morchella esculenta group
Gyromitra montana (also known as G. gigas)
Gyromitra esculenta
Gyromitra melaleucoides
Disciotis venosa
Discina perlata
Caloscypha fulgens
Ciboria rufofusca
Tarzetta cupularis
Helvella leucomeleana
Helvella acetabulum
Helvella chinensis
Helvella corium
Helvella costifera
Helvella elastica
Helvella macropus
Helvella solitari
Plectania nannfeldtii
Sarcosoma mexicana
Sarcosphaera crassa
Sarcoscypha coccinea
Peziza repanda
Peziza vesiculosa
Otidea onotica
Scutellina scutellata

The Puffballs

Calvatia fumosa
Calvatia subcretacea
Calvatia sculpta
Calvatia subsculpta
Calvatia booniana

The Corals

Ramaria botrytis
Ramaria rubrievanescens
Ramaria magnipes

The Gilled Species

Agrocybe praecox group
Amanita pachycolea
Albatrellus ovinus
Pleurotus ostreatus group
Coprinus comatus
Flammulina velutipes
Pluteus cervinus
Paxillus involutus
Agaricus silvicola
Agaricus arvensis

The Pored Species

Leccinum insigne
Boletus edulis

Spend a little time looking up these species and studying the photos and description. If you do, it will greatly enhance your mush-rooming experience this spring. Many of these are common and even abundant and a number are also excellent edibles!

Children, there was once a tiny, tiny spore that was borne by the wind for many, many days and carried far, far away from its mother. As the wee little spore journeyed, it was caught up in a cloud and carried back to the earth in a droplet of water.

The little spore settled into the earth and began to grow. Hidden from sight and ever so slowly, one cell at a time, the spore began to multiply. Over the course of time mycelial threads began to stretch out in every direction. The little spore could now call itself a fungus.

As she grew, she encountered other living things. Often, these were tree roots. She was no longer alone. She was a part of a great community. Trade is often what makes a community strong. This community was no exception.

The fungus was skilled at concentrating minerals, but, because she had no chlorophyll she could not produce the sugars she needed for growth. The tree roots stored an abundance of sugars and water but craved minerals. It was not long before they (the roots and the fungus) were trading with one another. A great bond of friendship was formed that lasted many, many years.

Decades passed, a century came and went. Old trees died and were replaced with their children, but she continued to patiently grow. No one saw and no one knew. Each tree thought that she was solely theirs, but she was now the benefactor of a thousand trees.

Then came the summer without rain. A storm passed over the forest. Small clouds formed, but could bring forth no water. Lightening streaked across the sky. The earth was struck by bolt after bolt with nothing to quench them. Fires sprang up throughout the forest and few trees survived the holocaust that followed.

The fungus, insulated from the heat by the earth above was spared the fate of her companions. But, she could no longer look to them to nourish her.

The chemical changes in the soil and the lost of her companions triggered a change within her. The following spring her mycelial mat which now encompassed more than a thousand acres formed a million knotted masses, each with the capacity to grow and mature into a fruiting body capable of producing tens of thousands of spores such as she once was.

The tiny spore that had grown in secret was now ready to show forth her glory to a world that hardly knew she existed. Millions of mushrooms sprang forth from the blackened earth and all who saw them were amazed.

Children, do you know the moral (or as we like to say, the morel) of the story? There are two: ‘Things are not always as they appear’ and ‘Patience and persistence can accomplish great things’. All of her life she labored patiently, hidden way, no one knowing her true greatness until that day when it was manifest for all to see!

After a long wait, I finally received Orson K. Miller’s new book, NORTH AMERICAN MUSHROOMS, A Field Guide To Edible And Inedible Fungi. Dr. Miller has done an excellent job.

The book is 583 information packed pages. The descriptions are brief, but concise. Each description also contains a reference to habitat and distribution and a comments section. I found the comments section to be very interesting and useful. Much of the information included there are things he has discovered in over a half century of field identification.

This is the first comprehensive field guide to come on the market for a number of years. The field of mycology has seen a lot of taxonomic activity and there have been quite a number of species which have been reclassified in the last few years. (Even Arora’s second edition of Mushroom De-mystified contains about seventy five species which have been reassigned since that printing. It is refreshing to open a book and find all the species names current and up-to-date. In each species description Dr. Miller has referenced any name changes that have occurred and listed all previous names. (Some species have endured as many as five name changes in the last half-century.)

There are over 600 excellent photos in the book. The photos are not large, but were chosen with great concern for clarity and detail. Photo reproduction in the printing process is also excellent. (I have a couple of older field guides with excellent photos but poor color reproduction which are a continual source of frustration for me.) All of Miller’s photos are of mushrooms taken in their natural habitat which is very useful in determining plant/mushroom associations.

Dr. Miller also included a section on mushroom toxins dividing the known toxins into seven toxin types. In the descriptions he references any of these toxin types that are known to occur in that species. This is very useful information as there are a number of species which were commonly consumed in the past that are now know to contain harmful or carcinogenic compounds. Much of this information was either unknown or omitted from many of the older field guides.

The book itself has a durable, washable, moisture resistant cover and glossy pages. These are great features for a guide which will often see field use.

If I found any fault at all with the book, it would be that it is not as ‘regional’ as I had hoped. But, it does contain a large number of Northwestern species, many of which are found in Alaska. All-in-all, this is an excellent book and well worth the $25.95 they are asking.

Globe Pequot Press is the publisher. The have been gracious enough to allow KPMS to purchase this and other books from them at 50% of list price. We can offer it to our members at the 50% reduction (plus the cost of shipping). If you would like a copy, let me know.

Just a reminder, this is OUR newsletter. If you have something to contribute it would be much appreciated.

For those who would like to make one or more excursions into the Skilak burn in the next few weeks, e-mail Daniel Brady at myco2us@yahoo.com.

We hope to see you for the foray June 3rd at the lower Skilak Lake campground between 8:30 and 9:00 am. If you can, stay for the potluck and barbecue!

Until then, take care,

Steve

Issue 6, May 2006

2006-04-25T22:37:00.000-07:00

Those who were unable to attend the April 1st gathering missed a very interesting and informative meeting. Dominique shared about a few of the most common spring mushrooms found on the Kenai Peninsula and I gave a PowerPoint presentation on Verpas, Morels, Helvellas, Gyromitras and Other Spring Mushrooms.

Following the presentation, Dan Brady gave us an update on the cultivation project. Several of those who had used their plugs to inoculate sterilized sawdust and grain in quart jars, brought their jars to the meeting. It some cases the growth of mycelium in the jars was phenomenal! Dan explained the steps necessary to either bring those jars to fruition or use the colonized material to inoculate other growth mediums.

We also discussed the importance of establishing various committees to take the oversight of our club projects and activities. I was encouraged by the enthusiastic response! There was a lot of interest and willingness to participate.

Our May meeting will be devoted to organizing these committees. This should be a healthy step forward for our club, as the more people that are involved and the broader our interest base, the greater the potential to become a successful and enduring organization.

(We reached an important milestone at our last meeting – we now have over one hundred members!)

We closed our meeting with a discussion of the upcoming June foray and our summer and fall foray agenda. The following is an E-mail I received from Dominique (which he asked that I would share with the rest of the club members). In addition to expressing his encouragement with the progress of our club, he addresses the foray schedule.

(I would like to say that we are very fortunate to have someone with his expertise among us. He is a tremendous asset to our club, and with out his knowledge and experience, we would be greatly handicapped.)

Hello Shroomers,

We had a busy meeting Saturday. I was impressed by the fungi cultivation results. After only a month, it is very encouraging! I opted for the slow method and my logs are still sitting in my shop's sink. I water the base at regular intervals, but there is not much white stuff showing, yet. The great results at the meeting might lead some of us considering growing the fungi commercially, locally. That would be a plus for all of us!

Toward the end of the meeting, we talked about organizing several forays in the Kenai lowlands, near Seward, in the lush coastal forest, and in the sub-alpine area of Cooper Lake. We also talked about fungi displays at the Ninilchik fair, at the Kenai River festival, and possibly one stand alone, organized after one of the forays. Summer is a busy time, kind of frantic at times, especially when the fish are running! We will hammer out details at the meeting in May. This likely will be the last indoor meeting until the end of the growing season.

I will personally guide several hikes this summer, beside the forays. One of them will be a hike up Colorado Creek trail, near Summit lodge. We will look at both the fauna and flora, including fungi. It will likely be Saturday July 8 or Sunday July 9. I will also lead a willow identification workshop in the Soldotna area on July 16, (meeting place to be announced).

Tim Smith offered to help begin and maintain the club fungi collection. Keeping a fungi collection (herbarium) is important step in documenting the species that occur in the area. The collection allows us to have a specialist examine the specimens at a later date and verify our identifications. The duties include writing down the information regarding the collection of the fungi, filling out a description sheet, taking spore prints during the forays, taking photographs of the fungi (or collecting photo-graphs taken by others, drying the specimen and making sure that the collection information, the written description, the photographs and the specimens stay together. I would like to see one or two more persons volunteer for this responsibility. It is not required that you know fungi to do this, but this is the best way to learn to identify them. We will have a short training session for those interested during which we will discuss the method. If you are interested in volunteering for the club fungi collection project, E-mail me at gastrancitrus@yahoo.com. --Dominique

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A little mushroom trivia –

Have you ever eaten huitlacoche? If you haven’t already guessed, it is a fungus. Its scientific name is Ustilago maydis, but those of us who grew up in the Midwest knew it as corn smut (and would never have believed that it could be food!). It does have a more respectable common name: the Mexican corn truffle. South of the border it is considered a delicacy and fresh ears with the fungal growth bring a much higher price than the common ones. It is harvested when the kernels are large and gray (but still firm). The Mexicans use it in salsas, soups and even make it into an ice cream dish. For those who haven’t eaten it, the flavor is about what you would expect, a mixture or sweet corn and mushrooms (similar to the flavor of an agaricus with a hint of chocolate). Avoid the canned stuff. I was given a can several years ago. The product was not only nearly tasteless, but the texture (a mixture similar to sawdust in slime) was awful.

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Here is some fungal humor from Red Skelton-

Question: If the sun rises in the east, where does bread rise?

Answer: In the yeast, of course!

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Since our last meeting, I have spent some time on the Internet researching what activities and programs other clubs have felt to be important. I have also contacted a few folks I know personally from large clubs which have been in existence for many years. Here is a summary of what I found.

The number of committees and their structure vary greatly from group to group. As you would suspect, the larger clubs typically have a greater variety of committees. Some smaller clubs simply divide their endeavors into ‘projects’ and ‘activities’ with these two committees embracing a number of sub-committees. (The projects committee, for example, might include sub-committees responsible for producing a club cookbook or supervising a cultivation project, while the activities committee might organize a foray.)

Though the committees names may vary from club to club, the list of committees that follows are those typically found in most large clubs.

1. An Education Committee which provides instructional opportunities both to the club members and the community. This might include presentations at club meetings, additional classes for new members, presentations before community schools or home school groups, booths at fairs or festivals, etc.

2. A Collection Records Committee whose responsibility would be to keep complete and accurate records of all mushroom species collected at forays or by club members, verifying their identification and maintain the club herbarium.

3. A Library and Resource Committee would maintain the club’s library of books, videos, identification keys and other miscellaneous resources, and handle book orders and sales to club members.

4. A Correspondence Committee would handle the day to day correspondence as well as prepare the monthly newsletter and maintain the club website.

5. A Foray and Workshop Committee is needed to organize all aspects of the forays (dates, locations, activities, group leaders, identifiers, guest mycologists and botanists, etc.) and field workshops.

6. A Toxicology Committee would provide medical personnel and veterinarians with technical resources and ‘on call’ expertise for identifying mushroom species and mushroom toxins.

7. A Cultivation Committee would plan club cultivation projects, assist with their implementation through ‘hands-on’ instruction and follow-up, and report back to the club on their successes.

8. A Culinary (or Mycophagy) Committee would organize and oversee all club sponsored picnics, potlucks, banquets, etc. (Other activities might include providing refreshments for the meetings or collecting favorite mushroom recipes and producing a club cookbook.)

9. Some clubs have Photography Committees that takes photos of all club events, supplies photos for the newsletter and website and maintains an album. These photo albums are often online sites that can be accessed via the net by anyone with a computer.

10. Hospitality Committees are of a fairly recent origin and were formed in an effort to address a common problem among older clubs; the failure to attract new members. Even with an interest in mushrooming, it can be very intimidating for a novice to enter into a group of experienced mushroomers.

It is the task of the Hospitality Committee to identify the new faces at the club meetings, find out who they are, what their interests are, answer any questions they may have, make them aware of what the club can offer them and make them feel welcome.

It is a well documented fact that the most successful clubs in terms of membership and long standing are those with the greatest member participation.

If you are a club member and have an interest or aptitude in any of these areas, we welcome your involvement. I know that there are a lot of gifted folks, with a diversity of experience and abilities on the membership rolls. We would very much like you to share your talents with us.

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The 2006 NAMA (North American Mycological Association) Foray will be held in Hinton, Alberta, August 17-20. Details and a registration form can be found in the NAMA website at www.namyco.org.

One of our long-term goals for KPMS is to host an annual NAMA foray on the Kenai Peninsula. They did hold their annual foray in the Anchorage area several years ago. I have spoken with a number of folks from NAMA who participated in that foray. They tell me that they would very much like to see one here on the Kenai Peninsula.

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As I was looking out my living room window today and marveling at how fast the snow was melting, I began to think back to what my lawn was like last summer. I remember it as a mixture of humps and holes, sprinkled with a number of different grasses, moss and mushrooms. My home in Soldotna is on a lot that borders the Catholic Church and the thirteen wooded acres they own. Consequently my lawn is also a maze of intertwined tree roots. I know I could have a better lawn, but I would have to fight Mother Nature tooth and nail to achieve it! Besides, I’m new to Alaska and want to fit in. Mine is the typical Alaskan yard.

I think that is why I enjoy the comment I hear most often from people who discover I know something about mushrooms. “I have mushrooms growing in my yard” they say. “Are they edible?” Sure they have a lawn full of mushrooms. Who doesn’t? The only way to avoid it is to pour on the poisons. Eventually, if you are persistent and patient, you will kill off everything but the grass (with the added bonus that your yard will someday qualify as a superfund cleanup site).

However, it is really not their confession that grabs my attention, but their question. Of course, there is no way I can answer that question. When I ask for a description, the usual answer is something like ‘big and brown’ or ‘tall and white’. They really don’t have a clue what I’m saying when I ask about spore color, gill attachment or stature type. Most can’t even tell me with confidence whether their mushroom has tubes or gills. It could potentially be any of a thousand species.

I have found that the best thing I can do is to tell them about the mushrooms that grow on my lawn and hope that something I describe rings a bell. My spiel goes something like this, “Yeah, I know what you mean. Mushrooms everywhere. You’ve probably got the same ones growing in your yard that I have.” Then, from that point, I am off and running!

“I have the usual assortment of puffballs, Lycoperdon perlatum and L. pyriforme. These are edible if you are sure that you haven’t confused them with one of the thick skinned Scleroderma species like Scleroderma citrinum.

Last summer there was a bumper crop of Agaricus arvensis. They weren’t actually growing on my lawn, but just across the fence on the church property. I’m sure that their mycelium was in my yard, so I exercised my right of (at least partial) ownership and picked them. This is a good edible species with a large, white cap and pleasant anise odor.

I had expected to find a Marasmius oreades ‘fairy ring’ in my lawn, but none appeared. I’m sure that I have seen them growing in Soldotna. They do best on fertilized, well manicured lawns. That may be why they didn’t turn up in mine. They’re a good edible species if gathered from a lawn free of herbicide, pesticide and fertilizer residues.

I did find a couple of boletes in my yard, but they were not the coveted king bolete, Boletus Edulis. My boletes had been parasitized by another fungus, Hypomyces chrysospermus and looked like moldy mushrooms. I did find plenty of king boletes on a vacant lot not far from my house.

I didn’t have any of the ‘Alice in Wonderland’ Amanita muscaria in my lawn, either. I saw them in several of my neighbor’s yards, admired their beauty and wondered why I had been so fortunate.

But, I did have a large ‘fairy ring’ of Clitocybe dealbata caps, pounds and pounds of this poisonous pest. C. dealbata (like Amanita muscaria) contains muscarine, which produces profuse sweating, severe nausea and other unpleasant poisoning symptoms.

I had expected to find Hebeloma crustuliniforme growing on my lawn along with the Clitocybe dealbata. ‘Poison Pie’ (as it is affectionately known) often fruits with C. dealbata. But, my loss was my neighbor’s gain. He had a bumper crop of this Hebeloma. H. crustuliniforme is a ‘fairy ring’ mushroom with a distinct radish odor.

Just about every lawn also has a few bell-shaped Conocybes. They like the warmest part of the summer and fruit in greatest abundance after a warm rain or on well watered lawns. They often appear early in the morning and have shriveled by late afternoon. I am not absolutely sure which species grow in my yard. There are at least sixteen western species and can be devilishly hard to tell apart. My guess would be that the brown species is Conocybe tenera (or one of the C. tenera group) and the white one, Conocybe lactea.

I’m sure that if I gave it more thought, I could think of other species that I found growing in my yard. But, the sad reality is that though I had a lot of fungus, I really didn’t have much that even remotely resembled food.”

I try to keep my mouth shut and not say too much about the thirteen wooded acres next door. What grows there? Now, that is another story!

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Just a reminder- If you have anything you would like to submit for publication in the newsletter, please contact us. This is OUR newsletter and we need YOUR input.

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Don’t forget to check out our website at http://kpms.blogspot.com.

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In a recent issue of The Mycophile there was an interesting article by Bob Sommer on the frequency of occurrence for a particular letter of the alphabet to be the first letter in a genus name. He found that over half of all the names of the various mushroom genera started with one of five letters, C, P, A, L or S. (The percentages used in the cartoon above are the actual numbers.)

At first glance, you might assume that this was some oddity restricted to the field of mycology. (After all, those mycologists are a peculiar bunch.) But this conundrum has a much simpler solution than that. (If I had received a better education, especially in the classical languages, I wouldn’t have had to read through the whole article waiting for Bob to give me the answer.) It turns out (to quote Bob Sommer) that “Mushroom taxonomists tend to choose technical names according to word frequencies in the Latin language. Letters most often used to start Latin words are also most likely to become genus names for fungi.”

So, what do you do with this valuable bit of trivia? Next time you are out in the woods with someone you are hoping to impress with your knowledge of fungi and happen to stumble upon a mushroom you can’t identify (who doesn’t have this happen to them?), pick a name that starts with C or P. The odds are in your favor, and you just might get lucky.

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Our next meeting is May 6th at the Cook Inlet Aquaculture Building, 40610 K-Beach Road. We hope to see you there.

The snow is going fast, the nights are warming and the days are longer. Mushroom season is not far away! Happy hunting,

Steve

Issue 5, March/April 2006

2006-03-14T19:24:00.000-08:00

I have labeled this the March/April issue in an attempt to get our newsletter current with the present month. We will continue to publish as we have (on a monthly basis).

Even though our March meeting fell during the week of the Artic Games, the turnout was excellent. We had over fifty in attendance.

Our program for the March meeting was focused on inoculating logs with mycelium (in the form of wooden plugs) in anticipation of growing our own mushrooms. We had purchased 900 plugs from Fungi Perfecti, 300 each of three species (a Pleurotus and a Hericium which favored hardwoods and one Hericium that preferred conifers). A number of folks brought drills, bits, cottonwood and spruce logs and the canning wax that was used to seal the holes and cut ends of the logs.

We began our meeting with Janice Chumley giving the financial report and brief explanation of the inoculation process. She then turned the meeting over to Dan Brady and Linda Stubbert (two club members with a considerable amount of experience growing mushrooms), and they were gracious enough to share some of their wisdom and knowledge with us. Then, it was out to the parking lot to drill and plug our log! It was a great time and a wonderful opportunity to get better acquainted.

Several folks snapped photos and sent them my way. I couldn’t include all of them in the newsletter, but I have inserted a few that were taken by Cliff Cullings. I have started a ‘club photos file’ in my computer. If we can figure out a way to do it, I would like to start an ‘online’ photo album so all can enjoy them.

Dan has an infectious enthusiasm when it comes to growing mushrooms! There is a lot to be learned from both him and Linda, and we are privileged to have them among our membership.

Step #1, drill those holes. ( Cottonwood logs and cordless drills.)

Step #2, driving in the plugs. (We had folks from 8 to 80 out in the parking lot that afternoon. It is great to see young people show an interest in a hobby that will bring them a great deal of enjoyment throughout their life.)

Step #3, sealing the log. (This gives our mycelium a fighting chance to colonize the log before some other fungus sets up housekeeping!)

For those who did not get the handout on caring for your inoculated log that Janice prepared, I have included it here:

Highlights to growing Mushroom Plug Spawn

If you have questions or need more information than we can give you, the folks at Fungi Perfecti are willing to help. They have a hotline number – (360) 426-9292 (8:30 am – 4:30 pm Pacific Time, Monday thru Friday) or you can get technical support on the internet at mycomedia@aol.com. You might also want to visit their web site at www.fungi.com.

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NAMA (North American Mycological Society) has a website-chat room where you can interact with others who are interested in growing mushrooms. They also have an online index of about 50 websites that can be accessed from their page. These are home and commercial suppliers, university sponsored sites and articles on mushroom cultivation. Just go to www.namyco.org/cultivation/index.html.

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If anyone would like a copy of Paul Stamet’s book Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms, we are able to purchase them for $22.50 (plus the cost of shipping). This is the definitive work on mushroom cultivation and is considered to be the mushroom cultivator’s bible. This book explains in detail the cultivation techniques and growing parameters for 31 different edible and medicinal species. It is a large book (592 pages) and has over 400 photos and diagrams. Normally, the book retails for $44.95. If there is enough interest, we will place an order.

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The following recipe was submitted by one of the gals in the club. It came to me through another party, so I don’t know who to thank. But, it sounds like it would be well worth trying!

Mushroom Chowder

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We have ordered a video from NAMA for the April 1st meeting. Depending upon availability, we will either be viewing a program narrated by Dr. Michael Beug, Morels, Truffles And Other Spring Fungi or a presentation by Nancy Smith Weber, After The Ashes Cool: A Look At Post Fire Fungi.

For our first foray of the season we plan to go to one of the local burns from last summer. In light of that, either of these films should be helpful.

Most people think only morels fruit in the burned areas. But, there are actually many species that thrive after a fire. Peziza’s are common. So are numerous Pholiota species, especially Pholiota carbonaria. Lyophyllum species are frequently encountered around the perimeter of burns where the soil has been disturbed by fire breaks etc. Coprinus comatus often occurs in abundance for several years following a fire. A variety of Helvellas and Gyromitras are common and there is always a myriad of LBMs.

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In an effort to include something instructional in every newsletter, here is a brief explanation of the methodology and the importance of using scientific nomenclature.

Every species has a unique two word name called a Binomial. In this binomial, the first word is the generic name. This name places the organism in a genus: a collection of similar and/or related species. The second is the species name. This name is unique to only one species in the genus. The name of the species consists of both names, because only the two-word combination is unique to a single species.

For example, among West Coast mushrooms, there are five species that share the species name cascadensis. If we were given only the species name without being given the genus name, we could not be sure which particular mushroom species was being addressed. It could be Cortinarius cascadensis, Galerina cascadensis, Lactarius cascadensis, Psathyrella cascadensis or Russula cascadensis.

But, why use the binomial and not common English names? Common names differ from language to language, country to country and even place to place. Without the use of a common language and classification system, accurate identification would be impossible. (Latin was chosen because it is a dead (rather than evolving) language and to avoid any offence that might occur from having to use another person’s native tongue.)

Common names are often applied to unrelated organisms. The Australian, North American and English ‘robins’ are not only different species, but different genera. Common names can also be very misleading. Irish Moss is a red algae, Reindeer Moss is a lichen, Club Moss is a fern and Spanish Moss is a vascular plant.

Learning to call a species by its binomial name is not difficult. It is a discipline that you will find has far more benefits than drawbacks. No one will progress very far in their knowledge of fungi or their ability to communicate that knowledge without learning to use the binomials.

Our next meeting will be on April 1st, at 1:00 pm in the Cook Inlet Aquaculture Building, 40610 K-Beach Rd.

Don’t forget to check out the website at: http://kpms.blogspot.com.

Have a great month. We will see you April 1st,

Steve

Issue 4, February 2006

2006-02-18T12:11:00.000-08:00

Another month of winter is behind us! It won’t be long now and the days will be long again, the snow will be gone, the grass green, the flowers blooming, the birds singing, those ornery cow moose will be calving and, of course, the first mushrooms of spring will be poking their beautiful caps up out of the duff. Winter will be just another memory.

We have already begun to plan our spring and summer forays. Of course, the first one of the year will be for Morels! If we get the right weather conditions, last summer’s fire by Skilak Lake should produce some exceptionally great picking. Burns offer the opportunity to gather a large number of morels fairly quickly. They can be easily preserved, and will supply you with mushrooms throughout the winter.

The Kenai Peninsula has a variety of habitat types. In each habitat you will find different species of fungi. So, in addition to our local forays, we would like to venture up past Cooper’s Landing, to the Seward area and possibly to Homer for hunts. Some of these require travel, and all might not be able to attend, but they would be great learning opportunities! Let us know what you think.

I contacted Pequot Press about the possibility of a discount on purchases of Orson Miller’s new field guide. They will give us the same 50% discount that we get from Ten Speed Press on Arora’s books. In addition, they are sending me an advance copy to review for them. I have been told that the focus of the guide is the Northwest and that it contains photos and descriptions of over 600 species. Another interesting aspect of this guide is that it contains a number of species that are relatively uncommon but have wide distribution. Most authors have avoided the uncommon species, leaving us scratching our heads more often than we would like to admit. As soon as I receive the book I will write a short review and will bring it to the following meeting.

The majority who responded to my query about the format for our newsletter said that they prefer to read it on line. Because of the length and pictures, some folks have difficulty receiving and opening it as an e-mail attachment. So, unless you specifically request it, the newsletter will only be posted on the website after this issue. I will send out a notice when it is on line.

If the e-mail response is any indication of the interest in our next meeting (and I am sure it is) we should have a great time. At our last meeting we discussed the possibilities of growing our own mushrooms. The majority of those present were interested. So, for our coming meeting we will be inoculating logs in hopes of successfully growing our own!

We will be plugging logs with a Pleurotus ostreatus and Hericium erinaceus. The plugs are on order and should arrive well before the meeting.

If you can bring a few Cottonwood or Aspen logs 5 to 8 inches in diameter and 24 to 32 inches long that would be a great help. (They should be cut at least 2 weeks before the meeting and not have been dead more than about 4 months.) Many of the e-mails I received were from folks who did not have access to logs, so if you are able to bring a few extras, you will make someone very happy. You will also need to bring some canning wax to seal the ends of the logs and around the plugs. (This is to keep some other fungus from getting in and taking over the log before our species have a chance to colonize.

The plugs require a 5/16 hole, so bring a drill (preferably cordless) and the appropriate bit. If you have a small tarp, that will help us keep the mess contained. I will bring the stove and Dominique is going to bring the pot for melting the wax. If the weather cooperates, we will set up outside, so wear warm clothing and prepare to have a great time!

Mushrooms may outnumber us and out-produce us, but who has domesticated who?

Here are some interesting facts from Dr. Benjamin’s book Mushrooms: Poisons and Panaceas:

Since we are going to be taking a stab at growing our own mushrooms, I thought it might be interesting to look at this subject on a little bit larger scale. The following is summary of a chapter I recently read in Dr. Bryce Kendrick’s book The Fifth Kingdom.

Did you know that land devoted to mushroom production has the capability of producing 1000 more protein per acre than land devoted to beef production? Producing beef is one of the least efficient uses of our land, and a luxury mankind may not be able to justify in the not to distant future.

Have you ever wondered how many pounds of mushrooms are actually grown commercially or harvested from our forests? The common button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) was first cultivated by the French in the 17th century. Who would have guessed then that such a humble beginning would spawn such a world-wide industry? Today the annual production of this species is about 1,100,000 tons! Since its domestication, the production of Pleurotus ostreatus has steadily climbed and is approximately 22,000 tons, annually. Shiitake (Lentinula edodes) production is 165,000 tons annually. Annual production of the ‘winter mushroom’ (Flammulina velutipes) is about 44,000 tons. All together, there are 32 species in 16 genera that are cultivated commercially, although only 4 or 5 are grown on a large scale.

The harvest of wild boletes (mostly Boletus edulis and Leccinum scabrum)sold in the European Market alone is over 550 tons! Other wild fungi which are commercially harvested in huge quantities are the ‘morels’, ‘chanterelles’, ‘matsutake’ and the ‘orange milk caps’ (Lactarius deliciosus). It was a surprise to me to learn that the common ‘fairy ring mushroom’ (Marasmius oreades), Coprinus comatus and Armillaria mellea were also harvested commercially.

With our growing human population and their demands upon the productive capacity of our earth, it is comforting to know that the lowly mushroom will be there for us. Can we live on a diet that is 75 to 80 percent fungi? Ask the flying squirrel or California red-backed vole. They wouldn’t have it any other way!

Kathy Wartenbee e-mailed me an article that she found on the net. (She also saved me from making a serious mistake. We had planned to order Hericium abietis and not H. erinaceus plugs from Fungi Perfecti, and would have, if she had not pointed out that H. abietis grows only on conifer. We all owe her a debt of gratitude.) The article was entitled, A Simple Method for Growing Pleurotus ostreatus. The whole article was very informative and easy to follow. I do not have the web site but it should not be difficult to locate. There is not space here to reproduce the article, but I did want to share a few paragraphs that were not only interesting, but new material to me.

“. . . To prepare the mushrooms for culture, select your sharpest knife and clean it well. Alcohol is a good disinfectant, but make sure that it has completely evaporated from the blade before you cut. Select a mushroom and rinse it in cold water. Make sure that it's free of all dirt, but take care not to bruise or tear it. Tissue injured by bruising, tearing, or dull cutting is more likely to decay.

Cut a disc from the stem (the short, tough part that was attached to the wood), making two cuts straight across, about 1/8" to 1/4" apart. Check that the disc has no insect holes, then drop it directly into the bag on top of your treated straw. Tie or seal the bag. One large oyster mushroom can supply three or four discs. (The unused portion, of course, can be cooked along with all the others you've picked.)

When you cut the discs, you might notice that the inside is a soft spongy area surrounded by a tougher outside layer. The outside layer is a compact active mycelium, a network of living mushroom cells that will rapidly grow over the substrate, using the inside stem tissue as a food reserve.

When you have sealed all your bags, put them in a somewhat cool (50-60° F), clean area. At cooler temperatures, bacteria do not grow fast enough to overwhelm a new culture. (At warmer temperatures, the tissue cells injured by the knife can decay before they heal, turning the disc into a liquid mess.) After a few days, the disc shows itself healthy by producing a whitish fuzz (mycelium), a signal that you have successfully started a culture. . .”

(The italics are mine) I had no idea that it was possible to obtain viable mycelium from a fruiting body. If this process will work with straw, it should also be successful with logs. I plan to give it a try. It would be interesting to see if it is possible to grow mushrooms using the supermarket ‘oysters’ as a source for the mycelium. If anyone has had experience using this method, I would very much like to hear about your results.

With the exception of a few Eastern cultures, mycophagy (the eating of mushrooms) is a recent development. Here are a few quotes from Western Europeans of just a few centuries ago.

Louis de Jacourt (1753) wrote, ‘But whatever dressing one gives to mushrooms, to whatever sauce our Apiciuses put them, they are really good but to be sent back to the dung heap where they were born.’

‘Fungi ben mussherons . . . There be two manner of them; one manner is deedly and sleeth them that eatheth of them and be called tode stooles, and the other dooth not. They that are deedly have a grosse gleymy (slimy) moysture that is dysobedyent to nature and dygestyon and be peryllous and dredfull to eate and therefore it is good to eschew them.’ The Grete Herbal

'Few mushrooms are good to be eaten and most do suffocate and strangle the eater. Therefore I give my advice unto those that love such strange and new fangled meates to beware licking the honey among the thorns lest the sweetness of the one do not countervaile the sharpness and pricking of the other.’ Gerard Herball

Like they say, ‘Times they are a changin.’ We can be thankful that not everyone listened to the advice of those quoted above.

The next club meeting is Saturday, March 4th, at 1:00 pm, in the Cook Inlet Aquaculture Building, 40601 K-Beach Road. Check out our web site at:

Issue 3, January, 2006

2006-01-24T22:30:00.000-08:00

Those who were at the January meeting will tell you that there was a lot going on. We elected officers for 2006. Thirty-odd members cast their ballots, and all voted to retain the current officers.

The twenty five copies of Mushrooms Demystified we had ordered were gone in a heartbeat as were most of the MatchMaker CD’s we had on hand. (We have another 25 or 30 books on the way and are burning more CD’s.) We also signed up quite a number of new club members!

I gave a short demonstration of the basic features and uses of the Match-Maker CD. Dominique rounded out our afternoon with a slide presentation and introduction to the ‘Principal Mushroom Groups’.

In a recent issue of Readers' Digest I ran across an interesting article on the value of mushrooms as an antioxidant.

I think we have all heard how essential antioxidants are for our health in general and especially the health of our heart. When we think of anti-oxidant rich foods, it is usually grape juice, blueberries and red wines that come to mind. One of the latest additions to the list is our morning cup of coffee! (I knew coffee couldn’t be all bad!). Of course the all around best sources for the antioxidant, ergothioneine have always been raw wheat germ and chicken livers, but who eats these often enough to make a difference? But take heart (no pun in-tended), there is still hope. In RD’s article ‘Consume More ‘Shrooms’, a group of Penn State researchers found that ‘a serving of white button mush-rooms has 12 times more ergothioneine than wheat germ’ and that ‘shitake have up to 40 times more’! If commercially raised mushrooms are that beneficial, the wild ones ought to really be good for us!

It is not only antioxidants that mushrooms have to offer. They supply a number of the trace minerals our bodies require and are also an excellent source for a variety of vitamins (especially the hard to get, B vitamins.) Mushrooms have no fat, are low in ‘carbs’ and high in protein, too!

Here’s a mushroom recipe that everyone will like and which will help you get that ergothioneine which your body needs. What’s more, if you make up the whole recipe, it is only about 400 calories!

Vegetable-Stuffed Mushrooms

24 large or 12 extra-large mushrooms, stems removed
2 tsp. vegetable oil
1 onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
½ cup chicken broth
½ tsp. dried oregano
3 tbs. grated Parmesan cheese
2 tbs. chopped parsley

1. Preheat oven to 400*. In a pot of boiling water, cook the mushroom caps for two minutes to blanch. Drain on a paper towel.

2. In a skillet, heat oil over medium. Add the onion and garlic; sauté for 5 minutes. Add the carrot and pepper; cook for 4 minutes. Add the broth and oregano; cook for 4 minutes or until vegetables are very soft. Remove from heat; stir in the Parmesan and the parsley.

3. Spoon the mixture into the mushroom caps. Place them on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes or until piping hot. This recipe serves four.

__________________________________

With a new year, there is always talk of ‘resolutions’; things to be accomplished, old ways to be abandoned and new paths to take. Most people understand that plans and goals are important. KPMS is so new that we really have no ‘old ways’ to abandon, but we do have new paths to take.

One of our goals for this year is to provide practical instruction in identifying the various mushroom species. At our February meeting we will begin this process with the Russulacae family. There are two genera in this family, Lactarius and Russula. Most of the individual species in these two genera are easy to learn to identify. There are a number of edible species and none that are deadly poisonous. Dominique will be introducing the species in the genus Lactarius and I will be covering the species in the genus Russula.

Dominique has been on vacation in warm, sunny Mexico the last two weeks, so I was unable to obtain a list of the species he will be looking at. But, for those who would like to come prepared, I am including a list of the Russula species I will be presenting. You will find all of them on the MatchMaker CD and most, if not all, in Mushrooms Demystified.

I will be looking at 15 species of Russula that are either known to occur in Alaska or are found in northwestern B.C. and probably occur here. By the end of the presentation, I am confident that you will be able to accurately identify these species and recognize the 9 or 10 that are edible!

Here is a list of the 15 Russula species:

R. aeruginea, R. bicolor, R. brevipes,
R. cascadensis, R. claraflava,
R. densifolia, R. emetica, R. granulata,
R. laurocerasi, R. lutea, R. nigracans,
R. occidentalis, R. olivacea,
R. sphagnophila, R./ xeramphalina

To help you become more familiar with these names, I have included a ‘word search’ that contains all of the species names and the genus name. See how many you can find!

Just a reminder, as a club member, The Spore Print is your publication. We encourage you to get involved. If you run across an interesting article, recipe, joke, or comic that would ‘fit’ our newsletter, send it our way. If you would like to submit an article of your own (a mushrooming experience, etc.), we would love to receive it. If there is anyone with some writing, editing, or design experience, we would welcome your assistance.

Aside from the newsletter, we hope hear from you. Let us know what you would like to see happen and how you may want to become involved. The success of our club really does depend on you!

A word of thanks to all those who brought treats to the last meeting. The response was amazing! Thank you.

I received an e-mail from Blanche Tinius, a member who lives in Eagle River. She and her husband, Jim are long time ‘shroomers and far more knowledgeable than they will admit.

Blanche is always a rich source of information. She reminded me that Orson Miller has a new book coming out this spring, North American Mushrooms: a Field Guide to Edible and Inedible Fungi. The bookstore price will be $25.95. I haven’t seen a review yet, but I have heard that it is a very comprehensive work and will include a number of Alaskan species. Hopefully, we will be able to include a book review in the next Spore Print.

She reminded me that the Pacific Northwest Key Council has a number of identification keys available on line at no cost. You can access their site through MatchMaker.

Blanche has a source for the book, Insects and Diseases of Alaskan Forests and two pamphlets, Common Trees of Alaska and Conifers of the Temperate Rain Forests of Alaska, all free of charge. If anyone is interested, let me know.

There’s more, Blanche and Jim will be presenting their annual Morel program at the Eagle River Nature Center on Sunday, May 29th at 2 pm. They will present a slide show which will be followed by a foray. If you happen to be in the area that day, take in the event and meet them!

Blanche included a couple of her favorite website to add to our list. I thought this might be a good opportunity to make everyone aware of the wealth of information that is available online. Check out the websites on this list, it will be a lot of fun as well as very educational. Many of these also have links to other great sites. The Evergreen sites are actual mushroom identification presentations.

http://www.mushrooms-millers.com/
www.botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/
www.evergreen.edu/mushrooms/phm/
www.evergreen.edu/mushrooms/mtsm/mtsm.htm
www.evergreen.edu/mushrooms/introm/
www.evergreen.edu/mushrooms/ifm/
http://www.mykoweb.com/
www.orst.edu/dept/botany/herbarium
www.fungi.ca/mushrooms.htm
http://www.mycokey.com/
www.mycology.cornell.edu/funinfo.html
www.svims.ca/council/keys.htm
www.mycolog.com/fifthtoc.html

Of course, another important one is our own web site:

http://kpms.blogspot.com

I’m sure that some of you have discovered other excellent sites. If you happen to know of one, please let us know so that we can share the information with the rest of the club. I encourage you to check out these web sites. They are a great learning tool, and it is all free.

There is really not much out there in the way of mushroom poetry, but I did run across this one by Dickenson.

MUSHROOM
by Emily Dickinson

The mushroom is the elf of plants,
At evening it is not;
At morning in a truffled hut
It stops upon a spot

As if it tarried always;
And yet its whole career
Is shorter than a snake's delay,
And fleeter than a tear.

'Tis vegetation's juggler,
The germ of alibi;
Doth like a bubble antedate,
And like a bubble die.

I feel as if the grass were pleased
To have it intermit;
The surreptitious scion
Of summer's circumspect.

Had nature any outcast face,
Could she a son condemn,
Had nature an Iscariot,
That mushroom,--it is him.

______________________________

Our next meeting is February 4th at 1:00 pm in the Cook Inlet Aquaculture Building at 40610 K-Beach Road. The meeting will consist of a presentation on the genus Lactarius by Dominique and I will cover Russula. We will have a coffee hour to follow. If you have any questions, please contact Janice (776-5277) or myself, (Steve - 262-3541).

We’re looking forward to seeing you Saturday.

Issue 2, December 2005

2005-12-22T22:36:00.000-08:00

I am still in somewhat of a daze as I sit down to write this issue of THE SPORE PRINT. I don’t think I could begin to put into words my surprise and excitement over the turnout at our first meeting. I had expected no more than 30 or 35 people to attend and out of that number, I had hoped a dozen or so would join. The week before the meeting, I put together 30 ‘Resource and Information’ packets and printed off an additional 25 membership forms, more than enough (I thought) to last us for some time. Nearly 70 people came that afternoon. We ran completely out of the membership packets we had prepared and gave out every one of the additional membership applications. By the end of the meeting we had received back almost 35 membership forms, the majority of which were family memberships!

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for this tremendous response. The interest and enthusiasm you displayed was overwhelming. To those of you who trusted us enough to become members, we will not take this confidence lightly. Again, thank you!

I am looking forward to our January 7th meeting which will again be at 1:00 p.m. in the Cook Inlet Aquaculture Building, 40610 K-Beach Road, Kenai. We will take a few moments in the beginning of the meeting for our regular business matters (reading of the minutes and treasurer’s report) and will elect officers to serve during the coming year. But, the highlight of our meeting will be a slide presentation on local mushrooms given by Dominique Collet. This was to have been the program for our December meeting, but had to be postponed due to equipment problems. In addition, he will give a demonstration of how to obtain a spore print from a fresh mushroom. We will have copies of MatchMaker (the mushroom identification CD) available for members and (if time permits), I will give a short presentation on its use. We have ordered 25 copies of Arora’s field guide, Mushrooms Demystified, which should arrive in time for the meeting and be available for purchase by members. There will be coffee and snacks after the presentation. If you can, stay a while and get to know some of the folks.

We have been in communication with Dr. Laursen, a professor of mycology at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. He would consider coming down sometime during the spring or summer to teach a two or three day class if there was enough interest. Please let us know what you think of the idea.

So, what is it that this young mushroomer has been picking? I think he’s holding an Agaricus arcticus and aren’t those the caps of Inocybe icesicklei, Pholiota frostbitea and Suillus snomania in his basket?

Don’t you wish that were true! Unfortunately, it is winter, and these cold weather species only exist in my over-active imagination. But, all is not lost. The mushrooms may be gone for another season, but there is still much to do. When you get your copy of Match-Maker, load it onto your PC and take the time to learn to use it. Don’t overlook the quiz feature. It is a lot of fun and a great learning tool. If you have a copy of Mushroom’s Demystified, do more than browse it, read it. Arora has an excellent writing style and both of his books are extremely interesting and entertaining.

_________________________________

The sun has risen over another day in this American community. There is a rush of activity as each one sets off to accomplish their various tasks, totally oblivious to the tens of thousands of alien invaders descending upon them from above. These invaders have but one mission, to take over the bodies of these earth dwellers and replace them with their own. Finally, they will suck out their victim’s brains and use the nutrients to nourish their developing offspring.

If you think this is nothing more than a scene from a ‘B’ rated sci-fi movie, you are very much mistaken. This is an event that has repeated itself over an over again throughout much of the habitable earth for a significant portion of the planet’s history. The community is a colony of ants and the aliens are the fungi, Cordyceps.

I recently read a short article about Cordyceps in a past issue of Mushroom, The Journal Of Wild Mushrooming. Though the article was very brief, it stirred up my interest and I did a little more research. The following paragraphs are gist of that study.

Cordyceps are part of a small group of fungi called Pyrenomycetes. They are often referred to as ‘flask fungi’ because they bear their asci (spore producing structures} in flask-shaped ‘nests’ called perithecia. The perithecia are typically embedded within the wall of the fruiting body with the mouth protruding slightly from the surface of the fruit, much like a small pimple. The spores are forcibly ejected as the result of some external stimuli. In addition, this group also includes the genera Xylaria, Daldina and Hypomyces.

Well, enough of the boring (but necessary) introduction. But, before we go on to look at the oddities of this mushroom I would like to make a few comments about the genus Hypomyces. Of the four genera mentioned above, only Hypomyces has an edible species; Hypomyces lactifluorum (the lobster mushroom). H. lactifluorum parasitizes the pure white Russula brevipes and changes it into a very good tasting, bright orange mush-room. R.brevipes is edible but almost tasteless, and has the texture of styrofoam. When it has been parasitized, the texture becomes similar to that of a potato and the flavor much like that of the chanterelle. Over the years, I have had the good fortune to pick many basketfuls of this mushroom.

Worldwide, there are quite a number of Cordyceps species, and an equally numerous variety of hosts, of which ants are by far, the most common. In the case of the ant, the airborne spore enters the ant’s body through the breathing holes (or spiracles) in its exoskeleton. Once inside, it attaches to the soft tissues and begins to grow. The fungus grows slowly over several days, all the while consuming away the ant. You would think that this would be a painful process, but the fungus produces an anesthetic that blocks the ant’s pain receptors and the host usually shows little visual evidence of trauma. Event-ually the fungus reaches a state of maturity and is ready to sporulate. At this point an unknown process triggers something in the ant’s brain which causes it to leave the relative safety of the earth and ascend a blade of grass. Upon reaching a certain height, the ant clamps itself onto the blade with its mandibles and enters into a catatonic state. The fungus is now ready to produce a fruiting body, but there is little left of the ant to consume. Only the ant’s brain remains. It is the brain that provides the nutrients for the growth of the fruiting body and the production of spores. It is from the brain cavity that the fruiting body grows. In a short time, all that remains of the host is an empty husk. Then, the cycle begins afresh with a new generation of spores raining down upon the ants below.

The process is similar with those species which attack moths, butterflies, cater-pillars, beetles or grasshoppers, but with one exception. In the case of these heavier bodied insects it is important that they be kept cool. If not, they will quickly begin to decompose and the fungus will be killed. These insects are driven to leave the heights where they are normally found and to bury them-selves in the earth. In addition the fungus produces an antiseptic which slows their rate of decay. But, the final outcome is unchanged. The host is sacrificed that the fungus might perpetuate its species!

2005-12-22T22:29:00.000-08:00

If you were to do a search of the internet for Cordyceps, you would discover that the majority of your ‘hits’ would be for sites that sold health supplements. In the Far East (and especially China) Cordyceps has been sought after as a medicinal herb for a millennium or more. The West has only recently ‘discovered’ it, but there has been a strong and growing interest. Cordyceps is promoted as an anti-oxidant, anti-viral and anti-tumor supplement which strengthens the immune system and improves a number of bodily functions. C. sinensis, a Tibetan species, is the most common one on the market and typically sells for about $10.00 a gram.

There are four species of Cordyceps that have been collected in British Columbia and probably occur in Alaska, as well. C. capitata and C. ophioglossoides parasitize the fungus Elaphomyces (the false truffle). Elaphomyces are fairly com-throughout northwestern North America in both conifers and hardwoods. C. militaris parasitizes butterflies and moths (usually in their pupal or larval stages). C. myrmecophila is an interesting species that parasitizes mummified ants. These are the spent ants that have died and been removed from the colony by their fellow workers who bury them about the perimeter of their nest area.

Now that I know something of the habit of these Cordyceps species, I hope to devote some time to seeking them out next summer. With a little patience (and a lot of luck) I might just find some, but don’t expect me to eat any of them!

-- S. Scott --

‘MUSHROOM MATCH’ QUIZ

2005-12-22T22:09:00.000-08:00

Throughout history, the lowly fungus has been the victim of man’s ignorance and superstition. As a consequence of this fungophobic attitude, mushrooms have been associated with imaginary creatures and death. Many of the common names they have received reflect this bias. See if you can match the twelve mushroom species below with their common names. (Here’s a hint: I won’t help you but Arora might.)

Win a laminated mushroom identification chart. Just E-mail the correct answers to me at sscott@alaska.net and you will automatically be entered in the drawing to be held at our next meeting.

a. Xylaria polymorpha
b. Pistolithus tinctorius
c. Polyzellus multiplex
d. Marasmius oreades
e. Clavulinopsis laeticolor
f. Helvella leucomelaena
g. Helvella lacunosa
h. Urnula craterium
i. Boletus satanus
j. Tremella mesenteria
k. Hygrocybe conica
l. Peziza sylvestris

__ Witch’s Butter
__ White-footed Elfin Cup
__ Dead Man’s Fingers
__ Fairy Ring Mushroom
__ Golden Fairy Club
__ Fluted Black Elfin Saddle
__ Dead Man’s Foot
__ Satan’s Bolete
__ Witch’s Hat
__ Fairy Tub

Issue 1, November 2005

2005-11-19T15:45:00.000-08:00

In this, our first issue of the SPORE PRINT, we would like to thank those who showed such enthusiasm toward the formation of KPMS. Your positive responses were a great encouragement toward our effort. We are confident that you will find this organization a benefit to you as we pursue our interest in ‘mushrooming’ together. Although the study of mycology goes back well over a century, it has only been in the last two or three decades that this discipline has really come into its own. As a consequence, there are tremendous opportunities for the amateur to make significant contributions to the field. Though it may be that your initial interest is in learning to identify a few edible species for the table, we hope that this will be just the starting point in a much broader, life-long study of the fungi.

THE FUNGUS AMONG US
By S. Scott

KPMS is the outgrowth of a recent conversation I had with Dominique Collet. Many of you know him as a diligent and quite knowledgeable student of mycology. When I moved to Soldotna from Montana in the fall of 2004, I made numerous inquiries and was disappointed to find that there was not currently an active mushroom club on the Kenai Peninsula. In Montana I was an avid ‘shroomer and co-founder of the Kootenai Valley Mycological Society (which has been a growing and productive club for about a dozen years). In talking with Dominique, it was soon apparent that he also had a desire to see a local club formed, but was unable to devote the time needed to get one organized. I committed myself to take on some of the organizational responsibilities if he would offer his expertise as the ‘resident mycologist’ for the club. He agreed and KPMS was born. I do not want to neglect to mention Janice Chumley, who many of you know from the Cooperative Extension Office as the ‘bug lady’. She is also an avid amateur mycologist and the one who originally gave me Dominique’s name as a contact. She has agreed to act as the interim secretary and treasurer for the club and help in any way she can.

As with any club, we are drawn together by a common interest. In our case it is an interest in mushrooms. Our goal is to provide a vehicle where we can corporately enjoy this pursuit. We will be organizing walks and forays, providing a setting where all have an opportunity to share their knowledge and experience and offering assistance and instruction to all that desire to learn more.

As a club member, you will have access to the club’s mycology library. You will be able to obtain copies of a large selection of identification charts and keys, instructional materials and a mushroom identification program for your PC, for the cost of duplication! You will also be able to purchase two great field guides (Mushrooms Demystified and All That The Rain Promises And More) at 50% off the bookstore price! Arora’s Mushrooms Demystified is unquestionably the best field guide that is currently available and the mushroomer’s ‘bible’. You will also receive our monthly newsletter, The Spore Print. (At this time The Spore Print is an evolving publication. Its final form is still uncertain, but, at the very least, it will keep you abreast of current club news and events, provide a forum for members to share their insights and experiences, and contain interesting and educational articles with a few quizzes and a little mushroom humor thrown in.)

A TALE OF THE
MADNESS OF MUSHROOMERS AND THE
BADNESS OF LITTLE MEN

I was out in the woods the other day
In search of the King Bolete.
When, to my surprise, when I plucked up a cap
What should I find at my feet!

It was one of those little leprechauns,
He had been napping under my Cep.
And to his amazement, and mine as well,
I soon had him fast in my grip.

He wiggled and kicked and bit my hand.
His curses, they filled those spruce hills.
In one hand I held that struggling elf,
In the other my fat Stienpilz.

“Listen”, I screamed, “I’m not after your gold,
And I’m not a bully or meany.
I’m only out here for some peace and quiet
And to fill my basket with Porcini!

Now, if you’ll shut up, I’ll let you go.
I’m a man on an Edulis quest!”
But when I sat him down, he kicked my shin,
So, I squashed the obnoxious pest!

By S. Scott

Our first meeting will be Saturday, December 3rd at 1:00 p.m. at the Cook Inlet Aquaculture Building, 40610 K-Beach Road, Kenai. At that time we will present a more comprehensive explanation of our goals for KPMS and give you an opportunity to ask questions, offer suggestions etc. Dominique will also give a slide presentation of local mushrooms followed by refreshments and a time to get acquainted with one another. We hope to see you there!

Steve Scott

Overview of Higher Fungi

2005-11-19T13:12:00.000-08:00

We have purposed that in every issue of The Spore Print we will include something that will be useful to you as you pursue an interest in mushrooming. In this issue we would like to include a brief introduction to fungi and an overview of the major groups that comprise what are called the ‘higher fungi’. (Though many of the groups are of little or no interest to the ‘pot-hunter’ they are, nonetheless, unique and tremendously interesting!) In future issues we will begin to look at the ‘gilled’ mushrooms and how to identify them. We trust that you will find this and future articles helpful and encourage you to start a notebook and save them for further reference.

An Introduction and Overview to the Higher Fungi

Most people recognize that at its simplest level, all living things may be divided into two distinct kingdoms: Plant and Animal. These same people, almost without exception, have a mental picture of all plants as being green. They are often surprised to learn that the plant kingdom may itself be divided into five basic groups and that one group does not contain the chlorophyll that gives the plant its characteristic ‘green’ color. All will recognize the first group, the seed producers (the leafy plants). Many will also recognize the ferns and their allies as a second group and the mosses, liverworts and lichens as a third. Some will even identify the algae (the pond scum that forms on still pools of water or the green coating that forms on the bases of trees in moist, shaded areas) as a fourth grouping. After all, algae have the characteristic ‘green’ color of plants. But, the fifth group, the Fungi, is often passed over as some type of anomaly or incongruity that is neither animal nor truly plant.

This group, the fungi, will be our focus of study. It is worth noting here that while many botanists and mycologists still treat Fungi as a sub-kingdom under Plantae (the Plant), a growing number have elected to raise Fungi to kingdom status. At first glance, this change in the system of classification would seem a bold and brash departure from all that is stable and concrete (and considered by some to be almost sacred), but this is not the first great change to occur in the classification of things. All systems of classification are nothing more than mans attempt to organize his knowledge. Hochreutiner probably said it best, “in nature there are no families, no genera, no species; there are only individuals more or less resembling one another.” Though this change to kingdom status is of recent origin, for our purposes we will recognize the kingdom Fungi. Taxonomy (classification) is not the most interesting of subjects, but, it is important, at this point, to present a brief overview of its various levels in order for us to have a clear understanding of the intimate relationship that exists between those few individual species we will as ‘mushroomers’, eventually encounter.

The kingdom Fungi is divided into two divisions: Eumycota (the true fungi) and Myxomycota (the slime molds). Of these two divisions, only Eumycota contains much that is of interest to the average ‘mushroomer’. The division Eumycota is again divided into nine sub-divisions. Of these nine subdivisions, only two, Ascomycotina and Basidiomycotina are of importance to us. These two sub-divisions with their respective classes, orders, families, genre and species, represent what is often called the higher fungi or fleshy fungi and contain nearly every mushroom that you or I will ever stumble upon . This is an extreme simplification of a much more complex classification system, but is adequate for our purposes.

The classification of fungi, like that of plants is primarily based upon the characteristics of the reproductive stage of growth. Although both the vegetative and reproductive stages are simple in comparison to those of plants, they do differ greatly in the type of reproductive bodies they produce and the structures that bear these bodies. Ascomycotina bear their spores in a saclike cell called an ascus and the spores are typically forcibly ejected upon maturity. In contrast, Basidiomycotina bear their spores on the surface of a reproductive cell called a basidia. The spores are attached by fine projections called sterigma. At maturity the spores separate from the sterigma and fall to the ground. This is a very elementary explanation but is sufficient to clarify the difference between the two groups.

Below is a simplified description of the major sub-groups of the fleshy fungi. As you can see, the ‘higher fungi’ are a tremendously diverse and interesting lot. Our most common fleshy fungi, including the gilled mushrooms, boletes, puffballs and polypores are Basidiomycotinas. The morels, truffles and cup fungi are Ascomycotinas.

BASIDIOMYCOTINA

Gilled Mushrooms - Agaricales

Agarics have the flat, blade-like projections radiating from under the cap. The stalk is usually centrally attached, off-center or lateral. Agarics may be terrestrial or lignicolous (growing on wood) with some being parasitic on living wood.

Tubed Mushrooms - Boletaceae
Boletes are fleshy mushrooms with tubes rather than the gills of the agarics. The tube layer is easily separable from the cap. The stem is typically centrally attached. Most boletes are terrestrial though occasionally they may be found on rotting wood.

Chanterelles and Their Relatives - Cantharellaceae
Chanterelles have fleshy fruiting bodies that are vase or trumpet shaped. The underside (fertile spore-bearing surface) is typically veined or ridged, though there are a few species which are smooth. Chanterelles are terrestrial but may be found on well-rotted wood.

Club and Coral Fungi - Clavariaceae
The fruiting bodies are fleshy and simple to multi-branched. If the mushroom is multi-branched it is typically so from a common base. Spores are produced on the branch surfaces. These mushrooms are usually terrestrial though they are occasionally found on well-rotted wood.

Toothed Fungi - Hydnaceae
The fruiting bodies are variously shaped; all with a fertile, lower surface composed of tooth-like projections. If mushroom-shaped, then the fruiting body is terrestrial. Those which possess a loosely branched or cushion-like structure are found only on wood.

False Truffles - Hymenogastrales
The fruiting bodies are typically round, but may be potato-like or irregularly shaped. They develop under-ground but occasionally appear on the surface. The gleba (fertile spore-bearing tissue) may be gelatinous, spongy or firm. Unlike the puffballs, the gleba is not powdery at maturity and unlike the true truffle it is not marbled or labyrinth-like.

Puffballs and Earthstars - Lycoperdales
The fruiting bodies are spherical to pear-shaped with the outer layer of some splitting into star-like rays. They are occasionally stalked. The gleba (fertile tissue) is formed internally. It is firm and typically white when young. In age it discolors and becomes powdery as the spores mature. Spore dispersion is by a pore, tear or with disintegration of the glebal covering. The may be terrestrial or found on rotting wood.

Bird’s Nest Fungi - Nidulariales
These are small fungi with cylindrical or cup-shaped fruiting bodies. The one to several ‘eggs’ (peridioles) within the cup are often covered by a thin membrane. They may be either terrestrial or found on rotting wood.

Common and Ornate Stinkhorns - Phallales
The fruiting body immerges from an egg which leaves a volva at the base of the stem. The fruiting body may have a stem or may be stalkless. The spore bearing surface of the cap (head) is coated with a foul-smelling slime. Stinkhorns may be in the shape of a phallus or a round lattice-like basket.

Gastroid Agarics - Podaxales
The fruiting bodies have the appearance of an aborted or badly deformed agaric. The stalk is typically short. The spore mass is usually composed of contorted gills, or branching cavities and may not be exposed. No spore print is attainable.

Polypores - Conks, Bracket Fungi and Other Woody Fungi - Polyporaceae
These are woody or leathery conks or brackets with a fleshy, pore covered under surface (fertile layer). The fertile layer may occasionally be gill-like, labyrinth-like, or tooth-like, but cannot be readily separated from the remainder of the fruiting body. The fruiting bodies are typically lignicolous (inhabiting wood), though they occasionally appear terrestrially.

Crust and Parchment Fungi - Stereaceae
The fruiting bodies are crust-like or bracket-like. They typically have a tough or leathery texture. The surface may be smooth in texture, warted or veined but does not possess spines, pores or tubes.

Jelly Fungi - Tremellales

Fruiting bodies are gelatinous in texture, convoluted, cup-shaped, spatula-shaped, or ear-shaped, though they are occasionally erect and/or branched, mimicking coral fungi.

Stalked Puffballs - Tulostomatales
The fruiting body resembles a puffball in appearance but unlike the puffball, it is borne on a well developed stalk. Like that of the puffball, the gleba (spore mass) of the stalked puffball becomes powdery upon maturity. Stalked puffballs typically inhabit deserts or waste places.

ASCOMYCOTINA

Earth Tongues - Helotiales
The fruiting bodies are frequently small. Most possess a stem with a fertile, rounded, club-shaped, arrow-shaped or flattened head. In some species the stalk and cap are not distinct.

Morels, Elfin Saddles and Cup Fungi - Pezizales
Morels typically have a conic, oval or bell-shaped cap with longitudinal ridges interspersed with pits borne on a well developed stalk. Elfin saddles are typically saddle-shaped, cup-shaped, brain-shaped or convoluted fruiting bodies borne on well developed stalks. The cup fungi typically have disc-shaped or cup-shaped fruiting bodies with short or absent stems. They may be drab to brightly colored and grow on wood.

Flask Fungi - Pyrenomycetes
Flask fungi are typically saprophytic (feeding upon dead or decaying matter) or parasitic fungi with the fertile tissue consisting of minute asci-lined flasks embedded in variously shaped fruiting structures. The more common flask fungi include the Hypomyces molds that infect Amanita, Boletus, Russula and Suillus species and the parasitic Cordyceps which grow from an insect host or from buried truffles.

Truffles - Tuberales
Truffles are typically rounded, wrinkled, or irregularly lobed fruiting bodies. They are hypogeous (develop underground but may be partially emergent. The fertile tissue is formed internally and typically has a convoluted, folded or
marbled appearance.