VIRTUAL EVENTS
|
For members only: Taxonomy Tuesday, a local virtual foray, on Tuesday evenings, and other club virtual learning opportunities. Members will be sent an email for virtual events with their Zoom link to join the meeting. |
UPCOMING 2022 LECTURES
|
Friday June 10, 2022 7:00 PM
Mushroom Forms, or Macromacromorphology Typical lists of mushroom forms (agaric, bolete, polypore, crust…) are familiar and useful, but we don’t often give the forms themselves much attention. This presentation will be a casual attempt to add some precision and thoroughness to how we think about the forms, relating them to each other and giving extra attention to the in-betweens – mostly with pictures. |
|
Speaker: Jacob Kalichman has been practicing identifying gilled mushrooms by sight since 2010, especially in California and Tennessee, focusing on little-known and difficult-to-distinguish genera. He is fascinated by the evolutionary relationships among mushrooms and keeps track of the genus-level taxonomy of the gilled ones and their relatives at www.agaric.us. He wrote the species text for the forthcoming Audubon guide and is currently a field mycologist collecting for the Matheny Lab at the University of Tennessee, with an extra focus
on Inocybaceae (fibercaps). |
|
Sunday June 12, 2022 2:00pm
The Hebeloma Project: Database to Website and Development of an AI Species Identifier The Hebeloma project has been evolving for over 20 years. The database that started in 2003 now has over 10,000 collections, from around the world, with not only metadata but also morphological descriptions and photographs, both macroscopic and microscopic, as well as molecular data including at least an ITS sequence. Included within this set of collections are almost all types worldwide. The next phase has been to develop a website, which updates as the database updates. This website, which will be launched on 1 July 2022, includes up-to-date species descriptions for all published species, worldwide, that are recognized as ‘current’. The descriptions reflect the collections of each species on the database. It also has a number of tools available to the user. For example a user may explore those species with similar habitat preferences, or those from a particular biogeographic area. A user is also able to compare a range of characters of different species. A key part of the website is the species identifier tool. The user inputs a small number of characters and the tool promptly returns the most likely species represented, ranked by probability. We will present the machine-learning techniques behind the tool, and the results it has had in testing to date. |
Speaker: Henry J. Beker is a professor and Honorary Fellow at Royal Holloway, University of London. He started life as a mathematician and became involved in informatics and information security. His career has spanned various executive and director roles within major electronics companies; Chairman and Chief Executive of a major publicly listed company in both Europe and the United States; advising the American National Standards Institute on security banking standards; Presidency of the Institute of Mathematics in the UK; authoring several books including Cipher Systems (1982), one of the first books to be published on the subject of protection of communications; helping steer a number of growing companies to trade sale or floatation; and founding the charity: e-Learning Foundation. In the early 1990s Henry became interested in mycology. In 2000 he met Jan Vesterholt and they formed a partnership working on the genus Hebeloma. Since 2005 his mycological research has been focused solely on Hebeloma and in 2016 (with Ursula Eberhardt) Fungi Europaei 14 was published, a monograph on Hebeloma in Europe. Since then the team have been working on Hebeloma worldwide and are in the process of publishing a series of papers on the Hebeloma of North America. Henry has also served on the council of the British Mycological Society and is currently a Scientific Collaborator with Botanic Garden, Meise.
|
|
Friday June 17 2022 7:00pm
Rediscovering Common Species using Molecular Biology: Stereum Ostrea and Its Forgotten Cousins Mushrooms that look similar are not always the same species, as evidenced by an abundance of DNA studies on genera like Cantharellus, Trametes, Armillaria, and Morchella. The genus Stereum is a wood-decay fungus abundant across the globe, with many species endemic to certain regions or specific to particular host trees. In the 50s, several species of Stereum were combined under the name S. ostrea due to their morphological similarity, but DNA barcoding clearly shows these species to be phylogenetically distinct. DNA analysis and literature review shows S. ostrea is an East Asian species, while S. fasciatum and S. lobatum appear endemic to the Americas and S. subtomentosum is found in Northern temperate regions. Morphological analysis shows that yellow staining and cap hair texture is key for differentiating these species in North America. |
Speaker: Sarah DeLong-Duhon is a Master’s graduate from the University of Iowa, Vice President of the Prairie States Mushroom Club, and Founder of the Iowa Fungal Biodiversity Project. Her research focus is the phylogeny of Stereum, a globally common genus of wood-decay fungi. She is experienced in the field and the lab, extracting, sequencing and analyzing fungal DNA to help unravel the mysteries of fungal biodiversity and evolution.
|
Past 2022 Lectures
|
Thursday May 19 2022 7:00pm
Focus on Fungi: Mushrooms and Their Health Benefits Mushrooms have been used for medicinal purposes for hundreds of years. They are a low-fat, low-calorie food with an impressive nutritional profile. Research on mushrooms indicate that they can be attributed to producing more than 100 medicinal functions such as antioxidant and antiviral activities and function in ways that may promote protection against type 2 diabetes, heart disease, neurodegenerative diseases and weight management. Nutrition facts about common and a few foraged mushrooms, mushrooms in history as well as preparation suggestions and recommendations for including mushrooms as part of a healthful diet will be reviewed. Speaker: Sherri Cirignano, MS, RDN, LDN
Associate Professor Department of Family & Community Health Sciences Rutgers Cooperative Extension, Warren County, NJ Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey |
Professor Cirignano is a registered dietitian-nutritionist with a Bachelor of Science degree in Foods and Nutrition and a Master of Nutrition from the College of St. Elizabeth in Morristown, NJ. Her clinical background is in oncology nutrition and her teaching and research with Cooperative Extension has focused on nutrition and cancer prevention, functional foods programming, nutrition and physical activity needs for preschool aged children, and food safety and security.
|
|
Friday May 13 2022 7:00pm
An Introduction To DNA Sequencing– A Talk DNA sequencing has become an integral part of modern mycology. It’s not only helping with the classification of fungi but has revolutionized our understanding of the fungal tree of life. This talks will take us through the many uses (and abuses) of DNA sequencing, explain how DNA sequencing works, what it takes to set up a lab and how to integrate molecular methods with the documenting and collecting clubs are already doing. She’ll also showcase some of the more interesting discoveries from her and the club’s collecting that DNA sequencing has helped uncover. |
|
Speaker: Sigrid Jakob is a community scientist based in Brooklyn, New York. She currently serves as the president of the New York Mycological Society and as board member of the Fungal Diversity Survey (FunDiS), where she’s also active as a sequence validator. She co-founded the FunDiS Rare 20 conservation challenge as well as a fungi-focused community program for Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery, a first for a public green space in the US. Sigrid has been extracting fungal DNA in her home lab since 2019 and has led many workshops in DNA sequencing. Her favorite fungi are Inocybe and fungi growing on dung.
|
|
Friday May 6, 2022 7:00pm
Illuminating the Dark Fungi Conservative estimates put the number of extant fungal species at 1.5 – 5.1 million, of which < 10% have been described. One of the many questions that has been generated from these estimates is where are the “missing”, or dark, fungi. The majority of fungal data, including species estimates, are based on studies of macrofungal diversity in temperate regions. The main focus of work in my lab is to discover and characterize biodiversity (species, genetic, and functional) of fungi from un- and underexplored habitats and lineages—especially the early diverging microfungi of the Basidiomycota from tropical regions. We combine exploratory field research with traditional and modern tools (ranging from physiological profiling to comparative genomics) to accomplish this. This has included, for example, the establishment of two long-term (20+ years) field studies in remote regions of the Guiana Shield and the Congo River Basin; development of tools for utilizing herbarium specimens for phylogenomic studies and for working with fastidious microfungi; and providing the first available genomic resources for nine classes of fungi. Results of this work have improved understanding at all levels of fungal biodiversity including the discovery and description of new higher rank lineages; discovery of new niches and ecological roles; and characterization of specific adaptive traits that appear to have driven success, in terms of species richness of lineages, and in terms of epidemic potential in phytopathogens. Finally, we have shown that the most widely used culture-dependent and culture-independent methods may fail to detect some fungal lineages, which will require development of novel approaches before illumination of global diversity in toto is achieved. |
Speaker: Cathie Aime is Professor of Mycology at Purdue University and Director of the Purdue Herbaria. Her lab conducts research on the systematics, biodiversity, and evolution of Fungi focusing on: 1) the earliest diverging lineages of Basidiomycota (Pucciniomycotina, Ustilaginomycotina, and Wallemiomycetes); 2) rust fungi; 3) fungi in tropical ecosystems; and 4) fungal diseases of tropical tree crops. Dr. Aime has won numerous awards including the departmental awards for Outstanding Graduate Advisor/Mentor and for Outstanding Teacher, as well as having been a Favorite Faculty Nominee. On the research side, she’s won The GMA Food Safety Award from the International Association for Food Protection, and is a Fellow of the Mycological Society of America and the Linnean Society of London. Her publications are too numerous to list (or count).
|
|
Tuesday May 3, 2022 7:00pm
Diversity of Tropical Fungi in Puerto Rico Puerto Rico is an island in the Caribbean with a unique culture, history, and biological diversity. Citizen scientist Kurt Miller has lived here for several years in which he has documented hundreds of species of tropical macrofungi. He will be discussing the taxonomy and species diversity of these beautiful mushrooms together with high quality photos from different habitats all over the island. |
|
|
Friday April 29, 2022 7:00pm
The Biology Behind the Zombie-Ant Fungi The ability to infect insects arose multiple times along the evolution of Fungi. However, none has shown such broad and sophisticated strategies to infect, persist and transmit spores than the so-called “Zombie-Ant Fungi”. These fungi evolved the ability to make their hosts to leave the colony, climb up to a summit position on plant parts and bite onto the substrate. The infected ant remains attached by locking its mandibles into the plant tissue, which is often further reinforced by fungal structures. Few days after the host’s death, the fungus erupts from their bodies to grow structures that will shower spores on the forest floor, eventually infecting new workers that forage on the ground. They have also developed a broad range of morphologies, adapted likely in response to the host ecology and morphology. In this talk, I will present how these behavior manipulators arose and which strategies they have developed in order to thrive and spread through several species, becoming a diverse fungal group. |
Speaker: João Araújo is a mycologist specializing in systematics and evolutionary ecology of insect-associated fungi, particularly entomopathogenic fungi and their mycoparasites in the Neotropics and Amazonia. João’s research interest is related to insect-associated fungi. He is interested in taxonomy, systematics and evolutionary ecology. Currently, he is working on the diversity and evolution of Japanese, Amazonian and African entomopathogenic fungi. His typical approach is to combine fundamental taxonomic science with natural history, field work, evolutionary biology, microscopy and photography. João is also interested in Scientific Illustration and Science communication through the arts. He is Assistant Curator of Mycology, Institute of Systematic Botany at the New York Botanical Garden.
|
|
Friday April 22 2022 7:00pm
Indoor Fungi Uncontrolled water intrusions in our homes and work spaces can result in unplanned indoor fungal growth. While most of us have encountered mold or mildew in our bathrooms, kitchens, attics and basements, there are a whole suite of fungi (and slime molds) that grow in our indoor environments. In this presentation, Michael Warnock will lead us through a wide range of fungal organisms that may impact our built environment, with sometimes tragic or lethal outcomes. 
|
Speaker: Michael Warnock studied mycology with Professor David Malloch at the University of Toronto. After graduating in 2000, Michael worked briefly in the University of Toronto mycology laboratory before joining a pioneering private mycology laboratory, Sporometrics Inc., where he worked until 2007. Seeking to better intersect his desire to study fungi that grow in buildings with his drive to be in the field, he started a new company ID Onsite Inc. in 2003. Since then, he has travelled extensively and worked in a wide range of water damaged buildings. Ever fond of time in the woods, Michael has been an active member of the Mycological Society of Toronto, serving in various capacities including two terms as President. He was a contributing author for The Mushrooms of Toronto which was published in 2015, and has given public talks on a wide range of mycology interests (slime molds, indoor fungi, ascomycetes, and mushrooms in video games). He currently resides in Woodbridge, Ontario with his wife and three children (ages 3, 5, and 7).
|
|
Thursday April 21 2022 7:00 pm
Culinary and Medicinal Mushrooms: Eat Them, Grow Them With an emphasis on cultivation, as opposed to medicinal benefits. Tina Ellor will talk about how we cultivate mushrooms, how anyone can cultivate mushrooms in their garden, and present a cultivated mushroom beauty parade. 
|
Speaker: Tina Ellor was born and raised in very rural Dummerston, Vermont where the landscape was often fairly bleak. Wild mushrooms provided color and interest during the spring and fall and she developed a lifelong interest in and passion for mushrooms. Her very tolerant parents allowed her to grow mold gardens on old food in the basement and instead of having her committed, nurtured her odd interests. She earned a BS in Biology from California State College Stanislaus where her undergraduate project was growing oyster mushrooms on rice straw in the Central Valley of California and MS from the University of Maine with research on growing oyster mushrooms on paper mill sludge from a magnesium sulfate mill in Millinocket, Maine. She was recruited into the mushroom industry by a mushroom farm from Grad School in the 1980’s and has been infesting it ever since. She is currently Mycologist/Technical Director at Phillips Mushroom Farms in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania which means that technically she does whatever she is directed. She has served on the Board of Directors of Pennsylvania Certified Organic, the Organic Materials Review Institute BOD, and on USDA Federal Advisory Committees including the National Organic Standards Board and the Fruit and Vegetable Industry Advisory Committee. She frequently gives talks on various aspects of mushrooms including cultivation, medicinal and nutritional qualities, history, and organic certification to classes at all levels (elementary through college), garden clubs, mycological associations and anyone who will listen really, and attends wild mushroom forays when she is able.
|
Friday April 15, 2022 7:00pm
Foraging for Mushrooms; Learn Your Toxic Species!
There is a surging interest in wild mushrooms and foraging for edibles. The Northeast’s abundant mushrooms offer a supply of locally sourced, tasty food. Many people are taking to the woods in search of edible mushrooms to eat and share with their families. Unfortunately, The Northern New England Poison Center has seen a corresponding increase in calls involving poisonous mushrooms concerning people experiencing a range of unpleasant and sometimes serious symptoms. Anyone collecting mushrooms for food must learn the toxic species with the same enthusiasm as the edible ones. This presentation will explore the Northeast’s poisonous mushrooms and the common edible ones that may resemble them, concentrating on recent upturns in poisoning cases.
Foraging for Mushrooms; Learn Your Toxic Species!
There is a surging interest in wild mushrooms and foraging for edibles. The Northeast’s abundant mushrooms offer a supply of locally sourced, tasty food. Many people are taking to the woods in search of edible mushrooms to eat and share with their families. Unfortunately, The Northern New England Poison Center has seen a corresponding increase in calls involving poisonous mushrooms concerning people experiencing a range of unpleasant and sometimes serious symptoms. Anyone collecting mushrooms for food must learn the toxic species with the same enthusiasm as the edible ones. This presentation will explore the Northeast’s poisonous mushrooms and the common edible ones that may resemble them, concentrating on recent upturns in poisoning cases.
Speaker: Greg Marley has been collecting, studying, eating, growing and teaching mushrooms for almost 50 years. He spreads his love of mushrooms to hundreds through walks, talks and classes across the New England. Marley is the author of Mushrooms for Health; Medicinal Secrets of Northeastern Fungi, (Downeast Books , 2009) and the award-winning Chanterelle Dreams, Amanita Nightmares; The Love, Lore and Mystique of Mushrooms, (Chelsea Green, 2010). As a volunteer mushroom identification consultant to Poison Centers across New England he provides expertise in mushroom poisoning cases. When not mushrooming, Marley works as a mental health clinician and consultant specializing in suicide prevention.
|
Friday April 8 2022 7:00pm
North American Cordyceps Culture In 2015, Cordyceps cultivation was unknown to the public, and the small groups of mycologists who were aware of Cordyceps in English-speaking countries did not know how to cultivate Cordyceps efficiently. Shortly after, William cultured the first Cordyceps to be publicly cultivated in the United States by MycoSymbiotics and Terrestrial Fungi. In Winter of 2016-17, William taught the first Cordyceps class in the USA and published the first English literature on Cordyceps cultivation. Since then, public accessibility and availability of Cordyceps in English-speaking countries has grown. This one-hour informational class will take a deep dive into what Cordyceps culture looks like in our country now, from growing to consuming. |
Speaker: Founder of MycoSymbiotics, William Padilla-Brown is a social entrepreneur, citizen scientist, mycologist, amateur 'phychologist', urban shaman, writer, you-tube vlogger, contributing editor for Fungi mag, researcher, poet, and father. William holds Permaculture Design Certificates acquired through Susquehanna Permaculture and NGOZI. William is leading the country in the field of Cordyceps cultivation.
|
|
Friday April 1, 2022 7pm
On the Trail of the Whiskey Fungus Despite that distillation has been practiced for over 3,000 years, only in the past few centuries have social wealth and agricultural bounty coincided to allow the stockpiling of spirits, with enhanced flavor and aroma characteristics accompanied by increased value as the emergent side benefits. The main downside to spirit aging has been the loss of alcohol over time to evaporation - the so-called 'Angels' Share' - long known to perfume the neighborhoods around barrel houses. The Angels' Share, however, is not just for the angels. Twenty years ago I answered a call from a large distillery to investigate a curious phenomenon of blackening on the outsides of homes, traffic signs, and patio furniture in areas near whiskey barrel houses. Incredulous at first, the unexpected journey that followed revealed a beautiful and physiologically intricate group of fungi that have long been hiding in plain sight, garnered popular press coverage at a level usually reserved for rock stars, and spawned a series of massive lawsuits against powerful multinational corporations. This is the story of the whiskey fungus. |
Speaker: Dr. James Scott
Dr. James Scott is a faculty member in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto where is the Head of the Division of Occupational & Environmental Health, and the Director of the UAMH Centre for Global Microfungal Biodiversity. |
Dr. Scott’s research focuses on the interactions between people and microorganisms (fungi, bacteria and viruses). His mycological work studies the taxonomy, ecology and aerobiology of human-associated fungi responsible for infectious and allergic disease. His work on bacteria focuses on the influence of environmental exposures on the acquisition and maturation of the infant gut microbiome, and the airborne movement of pathogenic bacteria in healthcare buildings and outdoor air. Lastly, his work on viruses investigates the airborne transmission of influenza and most recently SARS-CoV-2, and he is one of a handful of North American experts on bioaerosols with specific expertise in particle filtration efficiency of masks and respirators. Dr. Scott’s teaching deals with biological hazards in the workplace and community, public health sanitation, and medical and veterinary mycology. Most recently Dr. Scott joined the executive team of PsiloTech Health Solutions, a Canadian biotech start-up led by neuropsychiatrist and psychopharmacologist Dr. Peter Silverstone to commercialize the clinical use of psychedelic mushrooms in the treatment of PTSD and other psychiatric illnesses resistant to conventional therapy.
|
Friday March 25 2022 7:00pm
Agaricus of North America
An introduction to the Agaricus genus and how it is organized taxonomically and phylogenetically, followed by a series of interesting or representative examples of species in North America. Where possible, emphasis will be placed on species in Northeastern North America.
Agaricus of North America
An introduction to the Agaricus genus and how it is organized taxonomically and phylogenetically, followed by a series of interesting or representative examples of species in North America. Where possible, emphasis will be placed on species in Northeastern North America.
Speaker: Richard W. Kerrigan
Richard W. Kerrigan was born and raised in California. He became interested in Agaricus in 1971, after meeting David Arora while both were undergraduates at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree at San Francisco State University (1976, 1982, with mentor Harry Thiers), a doctorate from University of California, Santa Barbara (1989), and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto (1989-1991). From 1991-2017, Kerrigan held the position of Director of Research, U.S.A., with Sylvan Inc., the world’s leading producer of cultivated mushroom spawn, where he worked on breeding improved strains of cultivated mushrooms. His study of the diversity, taxonomy, systematics and phylogeny of wild species of Agaricus continues as a separate, independent area of research now extending over 50 years.
Richard W. Kerrigan was born and raised in California. He became interested in Agaricus in 1971, after meeting David Arora while both were undergraduates at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree at San Francisco State University (1976, 1982, with mentor Harry Thiers), a doctorate from University of California, Santa Barbara (1989), and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto (1989-1991). From 1991-2017, Kerrigan held the position of Director of Research, U.S.A., with Sylvan Inc., the world’s leading producer of cultivated mushroom spawn, where he worked on breeding improved strains of cultivated mushrooms. His study of the diversity, taxonomy, systematics and phylogeny of wild species of Agaricus continues as a separate, independent area of research now extending over 50 years.
|
Friday March 18 2022 7:00pm
Mushrooms: Unique Natural Dyers This talk is an introduction to mushroom dyeing. Susan Hopkins will go over basic procedure including preparation and mordanting of the wool, creation of the dye bath and some variables that can affect the color like pH and the source of the water used. She'll introduce us to species of wild mushrooms that have been found to have the most interesting pigments that can be easily taken up by the wool from a hot water bath. She will also talk about the International Fungi and Fibre Symposiums where mushroom dyers and crafters get together every two years to share their experiments and learn from each other. |
|
Speaker: Susan Hopkins learned how to identify fungi as a member of the New Jersey Mycological Association (NJMA) of which she has been a member for 42 years. After attending the 1993 International Fungi-Fibre Symposium in Scotland she became a “dyer”, learning the use of various species of wild fungi to dye wool. She has attended many International Fungi and Fibre Symposiums over the years, traveling to Scandinavia, Spain, Estonia and Australia. Identification is her main focus with a special interest in the tooth fungi including the genus Hydnellum, Phellodon, and Sarcodon. Susan lives in the Adirondacks, learning the local fungi while continuing to do lectures, walks, and demonstrations on fungi and mushroom dyeing.
|
|
Sunday March 6 2022 1:00 pm
Monitoring and studying the diversity of higher fungi in primary sand dunes along the Dutch Atlantic Coast The Dutch Atlantic coast is for the most part protected by a system of sand dunes, that varies in width from a few hundred meters to a stretch 15 to 20 km. The primary, shifting sand-dunes and the inland fixed sand-dunes form a unique ecosystem, that is protected and listed as Natura 2000 biodiversity reserves according to European Union standards. A large-scale monitoring project by members of the Dutch Mycological Society started about ten years ago. This Citizen Science Project yielded a lot of new data, and it appears that the fungal diversity in these habitats is surprisingly high. At present more than 160 species are recorded, many of them being unique for this habitat and adapted to the dynamic ecological circumstances. After a short introduction on the dune systems and their origins, and the current monitoring project, an overview will be given of the fungal groups that play a role in this ecosystem, with focus on Agarics, larger Ascomycetes, and Gasteromycetes. |
Speaker: Machiel Noordeloos PhD, honorary fellow of Naturalis Biodiversity Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands. Born 1949 in The Hague, The Netherlands. PhD in mycology on the taxonomy of Entoloma (Agaricales) in Europe in 1981 under supervision of Dr. Cornelis Bas.
|
Machiel worked most of his career at the Rijksherbarium, Leiden (later National Herbarium of the Netherlands, and now Naturalis Biodiversity Centre), with a 4-years break as head of the mycology department of the Plant Protection Service, Wageningen, The Netherlands. Machiel is specialist in the taxonomy of Agaricales and Boletes, with a strong focus on Entoloma sensu lato, various white spored genera in the Tricholomataceae sensu lato, Lactarius and Boleti. He is Editor of the Flora agaricina neerlandica, a critical flora of Agarics and Boleti in the Netherlands and Western Europe, of which 7 volumes have been published to date. He has published numerous articles and a series of monographs, cooperates with many specialists all over the world. He retired in 2011 but remains very active. Currently, he is involved in a complete revision of his work on European Entoloma based on phylogenetic studies. Besides his taxonomic work, Machiel is also very active in the Netherlands Mycological Society. He is scientific supervisor of a citizen science project called Network Ecological Monitoring, an initiative of the European Union to monitor the status of biodiversity in the so-called Natura 2000 biodiversity reserves.
Friday February 25 2022 7:00pm
Money in the Bankeraceae; Taking a Bite Into Tooth Fungi
Noah Siegel will explore the Bankeraceae, a group of tooth fungi that include Hydnellum, Sarcodon, Phellodon and Bankera, including the latest changes, and tips on identification of this tricky group.
Money in the Bankeraceae; Taking a Bite Into Tooth Fungi
Noah Siegel will explore the Bankeraceae, a group of tooth fungi that include Hydnellum, Sarcodon, Phellodon and Bankera, including the latest changes, and tips on identification of this tricky group.
|
Speaker: Noah Siegel has spent over three decades seeking, photographing, identifying and learning about macrofungi in the US and Canada as well as New Zealand, Australia and Cameroon. He is an esteemed photographer of fungi with a technique that maximizes utility for identification purposes while maintaining a high degree of aesthetic appeal. His photographs have been featured in Fungi magazine, mushroom books and club publications. He is co-author (with Christian Schwarz) of Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast, a comprehensive guide for the northern California coast, and is currently working on a guide to the Pacific Northwest. Noah travels and lectures across America, following the fungi from coast to coast, and everywhere in between.
|
|
|
Friday February 18 2022 7:00pm
A Mycocentric View of the Wood Wide Web We recently heard Suzanne Simard discuss her revolutionary finding that the trees in the forest are connected to each other by a fungal web, and that they are sharing nutrients and more via that web. But how is that web formed? What is really happening as different fungal species interact with different trees' roots and with each other? What sorts of recognition and movement are going on underground? The mycorrhizal network is behaving in ways that are surprisingly complex, and this complexity is rarely referred to — probably because it’s microscopic, underground and difficult to decode. While Suzanne was figuring out the web by feeding labelled CO2 to the leaves of trees, Tom was working on identifying the fungi at the roots of trees. The opportunity to hear both talks will give us a rare and valuable top-to-bottom view of the wood wide web. [This talk was also given at NEMF December 2021] |
Speaker Tom Horton
After getting his BA at Humboldt State University, Tom went on to get an MA in Ecology & Systematics at San Francisco State U, where he investigated the role of mycorrhizal fungi associated with chaparral plants facilitating Douglas-fir establishment. Dr. Tom Parker, a plant ecologist was his main advisor, but he was lucky to also work closely with Dr. Harry Thiers and Dr. Dennis Desjardin. Continuing to work with eminent mycologists, he got his PhD at UC Berkeley with Tom Bruns, focusing on the use of molecular tools to investigate underground ectomycorrhizal communities. He did his post-doc at Oregon State U. under Drs. Randy Molina and Jim Trappe, continuing to study mycorrhizal fungi and plant dynamics. He is now a professor at SUNY Syracuse where his projects follow his general interest in knowing how the life history of ectomycorrhizal fungi influence plant succession and plant community dynamics in general. |
|
Friday February 11 2022 7:00pm
Beyond Academia: Careers that put the Fun in Fungi. Join mycologist Sue Van Hook for an exciting look at fungi related jobs. The path forward from the existential crisis we now face from carbon and water cycles out of whack, features fungi, particularly Arbuscular Mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. So does the non-extractive path forward from non-renewable building materials to readily renewable ones. And let's not forget about the oceans and how fungi can replace plastics. |
|
Speaker: Sue Van Hook received her graduate degree in mycology under Dave Largent at Humboldt State, worked in land conservation for ten years on both coasts, taught biology and environmental science at Skidmore College for two decades and went on to become the Chief Mycologist at Ecovative Design in 2007-2016.
|
|
Sunday January 23, 2022 6:30pm
Fungal Identity and Conflict in Spalted Wood For 45 years as a student and scientist, Kevin has studied the activity and value of wood decay fungi, particularly in living trees and healthy forests. A Portland, ME resident, he is continually amazed by the rich fungal community, even in wintertime Maine. For many mushroom enthusiasts, questions of fungal identity drive decisions to forage food and medicine or to assess risk of damage to lawns and landscape trees. For some artisanal woodworkers, specific fungal interactions result in zone lines and other wood discolorations (collectively known as spalting) that enhance the character and economic value of a wooden object. This presentation will focus on the concept of self versus non-self recognition for common, local wood decay fungi and how that results in spalted wood. |
Speaker: Kevin T. Smith, Ph.D. is a Supervisory Plant Physiologist with the USDA Forest Service in Durham, NH.
This lecture was arranged by the Maine Mycological Association, a member of NEMF who has graciously made it available to NJMA members free of charge. |
