Welcome!

Welcome to the fourth Online-Only issue of the Sporadic Press. We are going paperless to simplify the Editors job, save money, and help the environment.

Meeting January 5th

Our January program will feature speaker Robert W. Walton Jr. of the Homestead Tree service in Lakeside. His powerpoint presentation is titled “White Rot, Brown Rot, Why do I care?” Robert was San Diego County’s first certified arborist with the International Society of Arboriculture. He started working with trees in 1978 as a tree maintenance worker and then served as tree crew supervisor with the County. He is also a registered consulting arborist with the American Society of Consulting Arborists.

College studies, including an AA degree from Southwestern College in life and physical sciences, provided Robert a good understanding of tree physiology and biochemistry as is applies to tree stress from pruning and environmental factors. He is a charter member and first president of the Professional Tree Care Association of San Diego County. He maintains his arborist certifications with regular continuing education. His website is www.homesteadtreeservice.com and phone is (619) 443-1775.

Pre-meeting Dinner

We will observe our usual custom of treating the speaker to dinner. Meet at 5:00 at Soltan Banoo (Persian) http://www.soltanbanoo.com/ 4645 Park Blvd San Diego, CA 92116

February Meeting Preview

The February 2nd meeting will feature a presentation from Daniel Winkler on the mushrooms of Tibet. For a preview, see http://www.danielwinkler.com/lecture_summary96.htm. Check out his web site at http://www.mushroaming.com/.

FFSC Fungus Fair

35th Annual SANTA CRUZ FUNGUS FAIR

Presented by the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History and the Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz.
Saturday & Sunday, January 10 & 11, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Louden Nelson Community Center, 301 Center Street, Santa Cruz
Admission: General $7, Museum & Federation Members $6, Seniors & Students $5, Kids under 12 Free
NEW! Special Double-day Pass: General $12, Museum and Federation members $10 More parking on Center Street, near the Police Station.
Did you know that without mushrooms, we’d have no bread, cheese, beer, or wine? Or that anticholesterol medicine was developed from mushrooms? Come to the Santa Cruz Fungus Fair to learn all there is to know about the fascinating world of mushrooms. This unique Santa Cruz tradition features two days of fantastic fungus fun for the whole family. Bring the kids and stroll through a re-created woodland forest displaying hundreds of wild mushrooms; the Fungus Fair also features a special room full of hands-on activities for the kids, including fungus exploration tables, clay mushroom building, face paints, and more!

Highlighted this year are top chefs and epicures Todd Spanier (King of Mushrooms) and Massimo Caporale (Gelato Massimo) who will team up for an amazing cooking demonstration to thrill your palate. Sean Baker of Gabriella Café, which has been proclaimed by Sunset Magazine as the “most romantic spot in Santa Cruz,” will be joining the Fungus Fair this year to demonstrate the fantastic flavors conveyed from great mushroom dishes. Other highlights include mushroom identification experts, a special panel on mushroom poisonings, and basics on mushroom identification in our popular Mushrooms 101 class. Learn about medicinal properties of mushrooms from renowned herbalist Chris Hobbs, or ask an expert to identify the mushroom from your back yard.

Visit the Santa Cruz Fungus Fair on Saturday & Sunday, January 10 & 11, 2009, from 10:00 am – 5:00 pm daily at the Louden Nelson Community Center. Tickets are available at the door: $7.00 General Admission, $6.00 Museum and Fungus Federation Members, $5.00 Students & Seniors, and kids under 12 are free. Special Double-day passes are available for $12.00 and discounted for Museum and Federation Members. Call the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History at (831) 420- 6115 for more information or visit us on the web at www.santacruzmuseums.org and www.fungusfed.org
[Editors note: check out the slide show at the fungusfed link!]

SDMS Mushroom Fair

Our Mushroom Fair date is February 22, 2009. It was incorrectly announced as February 15 at the November meeting. www.sdbgf.org/shows.html

More Festivals and Forays

Amanita ocreata collection information needed

From: Benjamin Wolfe Subject: Amanita ocreata collection information needed

Hello All -
As part of our ongoing studies of the ecology of Amanita phalloides in the Pringle Lab, I am developing a model of the biogeographic distribution of closely related Amanita ocreata. To develop this model, I need records (either from herbarium material or from observations by individuals) for Amanita ocreata that include a date and a location.

I have quite a few records for the San Francisco Bay Area and am hoping to get more records from the more extreme parts of the range of this species, including areas outside of California.

If you have a chance, could you send me info on any material you might have access to that includes:
1) Accession #
2) Date collected
3) Collector
4) Location of collection (more specific information is best.... but can go with town name if that is all that is available).
5) Host info (if available).

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!
Ben

Mushroom Sounds

Want to know how to pronounce those mushroom names?

There was an interesting discussion on the BAMS Yahoo group about how to pronounce the Latin names of fungi.

Perhaps the best advice came via S. Trudell of University of Washington
"I don't know if this advice originated with the late Bill Denison (long-time mycologist / lichenologist at Oregon State U), but he told folks to:
1. Pronounce them quickly, and
2. with confidence."
He also pointed out that "If you're interested, NAMA sells (for $7 or 8 I think) a cassette tape on one side of which Alexander Smith pronounces a bunch of mushroom names (American style) and on the other side of which Rolf Singer pronounces the same names (Euro style). The Europeans tend to pronounce things much closer to the way we learned Latin long ago in high school - but they don't follow ALL the rules."

In response, Michael Beug reported that "Kit Scates Barnhart was present when the Smith/Singer Pronunciation tape was produced. She reported that after producing the tape and then hearing each other speak many of the terms they BOTH changed many of their pronunciations."

Some searching on Google turned up a lot of links on the subject. My favorite is http://www.taunton.com/finegardening/pguide/pronunciation-guide-to-botanical-latin.aspx where you can click on a plant name and hear it pronounced. No mushrooms, but there is a fair amount of overlap between plant and mushroom names. This one: http://hcs.osu.edu/plantfacts/Plant/ also has sounds, but is not as easy to use.

This reference will probably tell you more than you want to know about latin pronunciation: http://www.ai.uga.edu/mc/latinpro.pdf.
If that is not enough, here are some more good links:
http://www.txclassics.org/pronunciation2004.pdf
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A657272
http://www.saltspring.com/capewest/pron.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_spelling_and_pronunciation

Mushroom Views

Paul Stamets: 6 ways mushrooms can save the world
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/paul_stamets_on_6_ways_mushrooms_can_save_the_world.html

Watch for the mushrooms in this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sohI6vnWZmk

No mushrooms. Scientists excavate the nest of fungus-farming ants. Amazing!
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/12/11/excavation-of-an-ant.html

Mushrooms in the News

Recent news items:
New text focuses on formidable opportunistic fungus
Whitebark Pine threatened by fungus
Madagascar hit by deadly vanilla-killi