Mushroom Id. Class

Come out and learn more about mushrooms in April. There is still space available in the April 30 class.  It will be held across from our usual meeting room, Casa del Prado Room 104, at 6:30 p.m.

Cost for members:  $ 5, paid at the door.  RSVP to Bonni by email to: burrogb at aol dot com or phone at (619) 263-0704.

Cost for non-members: $ 25 paid by check in advance.  This includes a 1-year membership in the  San Diego Mycological Society. Make check payable to SDMS, and bring it to the class.

The April 30 class will cover basic use of a microscope for the amateur mycologist. Learn to mount cross-sections of gill (and hopefully other) tissues on slides for closer analysis of spore-bearing structures. Also make quick slides of spores that can be used to check identifying color reactions to classic reagents in the study of mushroom species.

Please bring in fresh wild mushroom specimens to help widen our perspective on observable differences under magnification.

 

May 7 Potluck Party

No meeting in May.  Instead, we have our annual potluck dinner. To our new members, if you have not seen the fabulous garden at Jeans, don’t miss this chance.

 

Potluck Dinner

Jean Leighton will host the potluck again this year.  The festivities will start at 7:00 p.m. on May 7^th.

Bring a dish to share.  If your dish includes wild mushrooms, please provide a label identifying the species. 

Bring your own alcohol if desired.  Water, plates, plastic cups, silverware and napkins will be provided.

Address

1402 Willow Street

San Diego (Point Loma Area)

(619) 222-5360

Directions:

From most places, go to I-8 and head West till it ends.  Turn left on Sunset Cliffs, go a little way, and turn left on Nimitz Blvd.  Take Nimitz to Rosecrans, turn right.  Go past the Von’s and turn right on Keats.  Go up three blocks and turn left on Willow, and go about six blocks to 1402.

If you are coming via the I-5, there is no ramp to get on 8 West.  From the North, take the Sea World Drive exit and go West.  Sea World Drive becomes Sunset Cliffs, from there follow the directions above.

From the South, it is better to take Harbor Drive past the airport to Rosecrans, and turn left.  At the Von’s at Nimitz, follow the directions above.

If you get lost, call (619) 222-5360, after noting where you are.

Zoo Event May 19-20

SDMS will have a booth at the “Treasure of Trees” garden festival at the zoo.  If you would like to help out at the event, email Paul at:

paulmaschka at mac dot com

The event theme is Treasure of Trees. Our booth will focus on the relationship mushrooms have with trees i.e.: mycorhizal, decomposers, and parasites.

People interested in staffing our table will be trained on the topics to be shared with the public. We will hold a special class and field trip for our members that are interested in helping with this event and other members not working the event. I will also get us a behind the scenes tour on both days of the event. People can volunteer for one or both days and part or all day.

People should rsvp me. We could use about ten people max so space is limited.

Details of where and when to meet will be through email.

Fungus Fossil Found

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Scientists have identified the Godzilla of fungi, a giant, prehistoric fossil that has evaded classification for more than a century, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

A chemical analysis has shown that the 20-foot-tall (6-metre) organism with a tree-like trunk was a fungus that became extinct more than 350 million years ago, according to a study appearing in the May issue of the journal Geology.

Known as Prototaxites, the giant fungus originally was thought to be a conifer. Then some believed it was a lichen, or various types of algae. Some suspected it was a fungus.

"A 20-foot-fungus doesn't make any sense. Neither does a 20-foot-tall algae make any sense, but here's the fossil," C. Kevin Boyce, a University of Chicago assistant professor of geophysical sciences, said in a statement.

Francis Hueber of the National Museum of Natural History first suggested the fungus possibility based on an analysis of the fossil's internal structure, but had no conclusive proof.

Boyce and colleagues filled in the blanks, comparing the types of carbon found in the giant fossil with plants that lived about the same time, about 400 million years ago.

If Prototaxites were a plant, its carbon structures would resemble similar plants. Instead, Boyce found a much greater diversity in carbon content than would have been expected of a plant.

Fungi, which include yeast, mold and mushrooms, represent their own kingdom, neither plant nor animal. Once classified as plants, they are now considered a closer cousin to animals but they absorb rather than eat their food.

Samples of the giant fungi have been found all over the world from 420 million to 350 million years ago during a period in which millipedes, bugs and worms were among the first creatures to make their home on dry land. No animals with a backbone had left the oceans yet.

Higher Fungi of the Sierra Nevada

June 3–8, 2007

If you’re looking for a way to improve your mushroom identification skills, there’s an excellent opportunity coming up soon. This introduction to Spring fungi, taught by SFSU's Dr. Dennis Desjardin, is a week-long immersion with daily lectures, field work, and lab time. Yes, there is a final exam. For registration information, contact Jim Steele (see below) or check the SFSU website:

www.sfsu.edu/~sierra/mushcl.htm

LOCATION: The Sierra Nevada Field Camp of San Francisco State University, Sierra Co., CA, on Hwy 49 west of Yuba Pass and northeast of Sierra City.

INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Dennis E. Desjardin, Systematic Mycologist, Professor of Biology, San Francisco State University. Telephone: (415) 338-2439 FAX: (415) 338-2295; e-mail: ded at sfsu dot edu Web Site: http://www.mycena.sfsu.edu/

GENERAL DESCRIPTION: Students will be introduced to the different kinds of mushrooms and other large fungi that occur in the spring in the Sierra Nevada. Emphasis will be placed on the analysis of macro- and micromorphological features, as well as ecological roles, to aid in the identification of taxa. The daily class routine consists of an 8:30–10:30 am lecture followed by a field trip until approximately 3:00 pm. Transportation on the field trips will be by car pooling. Upon return to the camp, collections will be examined and identified in the laboratory (3:30–6:00 pm) in collaboration with the instructor and a knowledgeable graduate student assistant. All equipment, microscope slides, cover slips and reagents required for accurate determination of specimens will be provided. In the evenings, several lectures and slide shows will be presented, and the laboratory will be open for additional work on collections. If sufficient quantities of edible fungi are collected, they will be prepared for consumption and served to the class by the camp's chef.

Participants should plan to arrive Sunday afternoon, 3 June, in time to attend an orientation lecture on Sunday evening at 8:00 pm. The last class meeting will be 12:00 noon, Friday, 8 June.

Optional Textbooks:

How To Identify Mushrooms To Genus I and III:

I. Macroscopic Features

III. Microscopic Features

Both of these books are published by Mad River Press, 141 Carter Lane, Eureka CA 95501-9528, [(707) 443-2947] and must be ordered directly from the publisher.

KEYS: Photocopies of "Keys to the Spring Fungi of the Sierra Nevada" written by Dr. Dennis E. Desjardin may be purchased from the instructor at the Field Camp (approx. $10). Other references will be available in the laboratory, including monographs of selected genera, field guides, picture books, etc.

REQUIRED EQUIPMENT: Collecting basket; wax paper; a sturdy knife; a small hand cultivator or garden trowel (for digging truffles); a pair of fine forceps; a 10X hand lens.

CREDIT: The course carries one unit of college credit and may be taken for a letter grade or Credit/No Credit.

REGISTRATION: is handled by the Camp Director, and if possible, should be completed two weeks prior to the beginning of the course.

NOTE: Please register early! Last year's class of 23 students filled up early and many potential participants had to be turned away. If weather conditions are uncooperative, a decision on whether or not to cancel the course will be made two weeks before the course begins.

Please direct all questions concerning registration procedures and fees to: Jim Steele, Sierra Nevada Field Camp Director, Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave., San Francisco, CA 94132  email: jsteele at sfsu dot edu

Morel Technical Report

By David Pilz

 

A new report is available on Ecology and management of morels harvested from the forests of western North America. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-710. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 161 p.  It has been years in the making and is now available on-line for free downloading at:

http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/publications/gtr710/

It is large, so it is divided into 4 segments and might take a while to download.

If you do not have software to combine Adobe PDF files, you can download the entire document at my web site below. This combined document is 11.7 MB total.

http://www.peak.org/~pilzwald/TemporaryDownload/MorelGTR/

The PNW Research Station posts such General Technical Reports on their web site first and then sends the publication to the printers. Currently, the hard copies are due from the printer April 25, 2007. These are also free (including mailing). You simply need to contact the Research Station at the contact information on this web page:

http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/publications/order.shtml

Be sure to stipulate the title and GTR (General Technical Report ) number = 710, as listed in the citation above. They mail overseas too.

We anticipate high demand for a limited number of printed copies, so if you do want a printed copy, it behooves you to contact the PNW Station quickly and get your name on their waiting/mailing list for distribution of printed copies. These will be mailed when they become available, first request, first served until they run out.

David Pilz, Consultant and Writer

PilzWald - Forestry Applications of Mycology, P.O. Box 2238

Corvallis, OR 97339-2238 USA

541.753.6209, pilzwald at peak dot org

http://www.peak.org/~pilzwald/

Climate change fruitful for fungi

By Richard Black

Environment correspondent,
BBC News website

A remarkable father-and-son research project has revealed how rising temperatures are affecting fungi in southern England.

Fungus enthusiast Edward Gange amassed 52,000 sightings of mushroom and toadstools during walks around Salisbury over a 50-year period.

Analysis by his son Alan, published in the journal Science, shows some fungi have started to fruit twice a year.

It is among the first studies to show a biological impact of warming in autumn.

"My father was a stonemason, and his hobby was mycology," recounted Alan Gange, an ecology professor at Royal Holloway, University of London.  

"For 50 years of his life, he went out and recorded the appearance of mushrooms and toadstools around Salisbury, and he also got his friends in the local natural history group to bring back samples they found when they were out walking.  When he retired, he bought himself a computer, taught himself Excel, and typed in all these 52,000 records."

Now Mr. Gange senior finds his enthusiasm and diligence rewarded as a named author on a paper in one of the two most eminent scientific journals in the world.

"I'm on top of the world, I can't quite believe it yet," he told the BBC News website.

The records included sightings of 315 species of mushrooms and toadstools which appear in the autumn, being the seasonal fruiting parts of fungi that live in the soil, on rotting wood or in tree roots.

One of the changes Professor Gange turned up was that the autumnal fruiting period has expanded. Some mushrooms and toadstools are emerging earlier each year, others later, which he thinks are responses to warmer temperatures and higher rainfall.

More spectacularly, he found that more than one third of the species recorded have started to fruit twice per year. There was no record of this before 1976; but since then, 120 species have shown an additional fruiting in spring.

"I looked up the data on the average temperature for February in southern England during the 1950s, and it was 3.5C," he said.  "In the current decade it's 5.2C. We used to get cold days and nights in February which caused fungi to be dormant; these days we get very little of that."

In recent years a significant number of studies have found changes in species' behaviour during springtime apparently related to climate change, with growing seasons starting earlier, and young animals born in months which would, in previous years, have been too cold.

This is one of the first studies to show a parallel trend in autumn.

After more than 50 years of observing the natural world, Edward Gange is convinced that the climate is changing - at least within a 30km radius of Salisbury - though he prefers to attribute the warming to natural cycles rather than humanity's production of greenhouse gases.

"When I was a lad, it was an absolutely categorical fact that Red Admirals would not survive the winter," he said.  "This year we saw them on 19 January. That's a heck of a change, and it's not the only one."

 

Wild mushrooms less precarious than feared

Overharvesting isn't such a big problem after all, experts say

Glen Martin,
San Francisco Chronicle

Fears that wild mushrooms could disappear from Pacific state woodlands are easing because of growing production in other countries and research that shows harvesting may not endanger most native fungi as once feared.

Until recently, hordes of professional mushroom pickers would descend on forests each fall and spring to harvest matsutake, morel, chanterelle and porcini mushrooms to sate the skyrocketing domestic and international demand. Worries grew that the harvest was not sustainable.

But in the past few years, the wild mushroom trade has expanded to Latin America and Asia. Mushrooms are plentiful there, and labor costs are exponentially lower. Other infrastructure improvements -- such as better roads -- ensure the mushrooms can make it to market before spoiling, experts say.

Paul Stamets, proprietor of Fungi Perfecti, a Washington state company that sells home-growing kits, said prices for all commercial species have dropped.

"Pickers used to get $30 a pound for matsutake, and now it's just a fraction of that," he said. "There aren't nearly as many buying stations around. The trade has largely moved elsewhere."

Stamets said harvesting has had little effect on mushroom abundance in the United States, though intensive picking can have a depressive effect in certain locales.

"At a certain point, you can cross a threshold where spore dispersal may be reduced, and that would diminish new satellite colonies," he said.

A greater long-term threat, Stamets said, is habitat destruction: suburban sprawl, road construction and some logging. As woodlands disappear, so do the mushrooms that depend on them.

Research supports Stamets' belief that mushrooms may be more tolerant of regular harvesting than previously thought.

David Pilz, an Oregon mycologist who spent 14 years documenting harvest impacts, said picking most types of mushrooms is analogous to plucking apples from a tree. That's because mushrooms are merely the fruit of subterranean "mycelial mats" -- the mat is the true plant, not the mushroom.

"You have to think of mushrooms as a tree, a long-lived organism that can produce fruit year after year as long as it isn't damaged," he said.

Still, the potential human impact on wild mushrooms varies from species to species.

Morels - the prime spring species - seem fairly immune to harvesting, even though the pressure can be intense. Morels generally favor recently burned areas, Pilz said. The year after a big forest fire, mushroom hunters typically swarm burn zones.

"Mushrooms reproduce by releasing spores," Pilz said, "and pickers often take morels before they're mature. That initially led to some concerns about harvesting impacts."

But it has since been discovered that morels are among the planet's "weediest' mushrooms, Pilz said. No matter how many are harvested, he said, enough release their spores to generally assure their abundance in following years.

"The fact that they grow in burned areas also helps them," he said. "In heavily wooded areas, spores can disperse only a few feet. But in burned zones, spores fall on bare earth and are transported long distances by wind and water."

Likewise, chanterelles, a prized fall variety especially abundant in Northern California, generally stand up well to harvesting. That's because they ripen over several weeks, distributing their spores a few at a time, he said. In any chanterelle zone, some mushrooms are always dropping spores.

But two of the most valuable fungi -- matsutake mushrooms and truffles -- can be severely harmed by harvesters, Pilz said. That's because the mycelia that produce them do not fruit above ground. Truffles are wholly subterranean, and matsutakes barely poke through the dirt. In North America, harvesters find them by raking likely spots, damaging the mycelial mats.

"The damage can be significant," said Pilz. "We're trying to encourage the use of trained dogs to sniff out matsutake and truffles, as is done in Europe. That way they can be found and harvested with little or no damage."

Mushroom lovers can do their part to assure future fungi abundance, Stamets said.

"I was friends with Frank Herbert, the author of the 'Dune' books," Stamets recalled. "When he picked chanterelles, he used to toss the trimmings and rejects in a bucket, fill it with water, and sluice the contents around his Christmas tree farm. I was dubious, but he established some nice chanterelle colonies that way."

Stamets also likes to stick a big, ripe porcini mushroom on his car antenna.

"As you drive around, it's happily releasing spores," he said. "It looks a little weird, but it's for a good cause."

 

Truffles

A complex of subterranean species that includes the priciest of wild fungi. Oregon produces large numbers of high-quality truffles. Harvesters can reduce truffle yields by using rakes that destroy the mycelium that produces the fungus.

Porcini

Also known as boletes, or boletus mushrooms. Excellent fresh or dried, porcinis are fall mushrooms that

have spongy ventral surfaces rather than gills. Their numbers remain abundant.

Matsutake

An extremely choice and expensive fall mushroom that is particularly popular in Asia. They seldom poke much above the surface of the dirt; like truffles, they can be damaged by harvesters using rakes.

Chanterelles

One of the most easily recognized and popular of Northern California's wild mushrooms. Because they release their spores over long periods of time, they are not particularly vulnerable to heavy exploitation.

Morels

Considered the prime spring mushroom, morels thrive in burned over areas, where they can sometimes be found in extreme abundance. They are excellent fresh or dried.

Effort to catalog species tops 1 million

By Randolph E. Schmid,

AP Science Writer

A worldwide scientific effort to catalog every living species has topped the 1 million milestone. Six years into the program the total has reached 1,009,000, researchers report. They hope to complete the listing by 2011, reaching an expected total of about 1.75 million species.

Thomas M. Orrell, a biologist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, said the finished catalog will include all known living organisms, from plants and animals to fungi and microorganisms such as bacteria, protozoa and viruses.

"Many are surprised that, despite over two centuries of work by biologists and the current worldwide interest in biodiversity, there is presently no comprehensive catalog of all known species of organisms on Earth," Orrell said.

The listing does not include fossil species from the past.

The Integrated Taxonomic Information System-Species 2000 Catalog of Life provides access to data maintained by a variety of scientific organizations, each specializing in a certain area.

These lists are peer-reviewed and checked technically, and then integrated into special software for the catalog.  The project, involving some 3,000 biologists, is led by Frank Bisby of the University of Reading in England and Orrell.

The U.S. Geological Survey's National Biological Information Infrastructure is providing support for the effort.

 

On the Net:

Catalog of Life:

 http://www.catalogueoflife.org

 

Catalog source data:

http://tinyurl.com/258ej4

 

National Biological Information Infrastructure:

http://www.nbii.gov

 

What’s Cooking

Fungi As Food

By Dave Grubb

 

The local market has fresh morels.  I debated buying some, but decided to pass, they did not look as fresh as I would like.  I have not checked Whole Foods or Specialty Produce, they may have some that look better.

Reports from Northern CA indicate that the low elevation season may be over, but morels are now being found at around 4,000 foot elevations.

A search for a morel recipe for the month led me to many variations on a few themes:  fried, sautéed, sauced, and stuffed.  So, this will be “invent your own morel recipe” month.  Choose a category, select some variations, and try it out.  If it works, send it to me for another newsletter.

 

Fried

Works best for larger specimens, cut them in half or quarters.

Toss them in some sticky liquid to coat, like beaten egg, milk, beaten egg and milk, cream, or beer.

Next coat them with something crunchy.  Flour or corn meal are the simple options.  For variety, try crushing saltines, Ritz crackers, potato chips, corn flakes, or anything else that sounds good.  The easiest way is to put the crushed crunchy stuff in a bag with some seasonings, drop in some sticky morels, and shake the bag.

Experienced cooks may want to try a more complex variation involving batter.  Batter just means that instead of applying sticky liquid and then crunchy stuff, you mix one or more sticky liquids with one or more kinds of crunchy stuff, and then apply it all at once to the morels.

Fry until nicely browned in your choice of fat.  Bacon fat, butter, olive oil, peanut oil, or whatever comes to hand.  Turn once, gently, so you do not scrape off too much of the crunchy stuff.

Sautéed

The basic operation is simplicity itself.  Cook over medium to high heat, and keep the food moving.  The infinite variations are the accompaniments.  Butter, olive oil, grapeseed oil, or whatever.  Just enough to keep the food from sticking to the pan.  Any vegetables you have handy.  Meat if you like.  Toward the end, some flavorful liquid to loosen the browned bits and blend the flavors.  Best served with something to soak up the juices, like pasta or rice.

When choosing the vegetables for a sauté, lean toward the onion family.  Garlic, onions, shallots, leeks, and ramps all go well.  Green bell peppers also go well with morels, as do asparagus, fiddleheads, and various peas: snow, english, or mange-tout (aka sugar snaps).

 

Sauced

Sauced starts up where sautéed leaves off.  You do the basic sauté, then add more liquid, and thicken it.  Go lighter on the veggies, use them as seasoning rather than an ingredient.  When you would be finished with a sauté, add more liquid.  Wine is a good start, sweet or dry, red or white, bubbly or still.  Various broths also work: chicken, veal, beef, or veggie.  Or go wild and use more than one kind of liquid.  Reduce the liquid some, then thicken.  Approaches range from simple:  add sweet or sour cream; thru moderate: make a roux, combine sweet and sour cream; to complex: thicken with egg yolks, cooked just until they thicken but not curdle  Pick an approach that fits your culinary skills.

 

Stuffed

Morels look like they were made to be stuffed.  Most anything tasty would work, then bake until done.

Try combining seafood and cheese, or a savory sausage and crumbs, or leftover stew, or your favorite pizza topping.  It’s all good.  Some cheese on top never hurts.

---

Web-only Bonus Links!

The Great Morel http://www.thegreatmorel.com/recipes.html

Forest Mushrooms.com http://www.forestmushrooms.com/morel.html

Wild Harvest http://www.wild-harvest.com/pages/morel.htm

Muscoda Morel Festival Recipes http://grantcounty.org/ci/muscoda/recipes-index.html

Mykoweb Morel Recipes http://www.mykoweb.com/cookbook/morels.html

---

SDMS Information