WVMS Funga's Boletim

24 de dezembro de 2020

Holiday Forays

This year has been a challenge, but has also allowed us time to study and move forward in our knowledge of fungi. It has been just over a year since the Willamette Valley Mushroom Society Study Group was formed. Our original goal was to create a core group of people that could help ID mushrooms quickly during our Annual Mushroom Show. As the facilitator of this group, it was always my intention not only to learn about fungi but also create a curriculum or structure so others could learn as well. So as I learned, I created a structure and foundation for others to follow in our footsteps.
Our Study Group has consisted of 5 core members who through a pandemic, jobs, families, surgery and competing interests, have managed to continue to dedicate significant time to the study of fungi. Our mentor, Henry Young, has been a patient guide throughout this process, often giving us clues, but making us do the hard work. It is because of this hard work we can say we are citizen scientists. We are all dedicated to this field and are constantly learning and discovering new things to us. For instance, I knew that Tapinella atrotomentasa had a chemical reaction on it's cap to ammonia, it turns bright, vibrant purple but asked if it did the same thing to spores. I could not find that in any literature, so with my old microscope and a dropper full of household ammonia, I mounted a slide of spores to see. Sure enough, the outer edge of the spores did turn purple as well. It is the answer to the questions that is so exciting and the reason I keep working on getting better at identification and learning the nuances of the mushrooms I encounter.
This week my neurosurgeon cleared me for all activity, and since it is a pandemic, I have no holiday parties, potlucks or normal holiday festivities to celebrate. So I decided to gather my study group and try and get out into the woods as often as possible this week.
On Saturday, December 19th, we went to the Coastal Range and walked in the pouring rain to the damp canopy of spruce and cedar forest. I recognized a few mushrooms I had seen in other woods like the red capped Lactarius https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/66973242 and the Dacrymyces chrysospermus https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/66971991 but found some new things I have only seen in books. Alloclavaria purpurea https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/66971862 was one I have wanted to find since seeing pictures of club fungi and this was also the first time finding Albatrellus https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/66972557 .
On Monday, December 21st, we went back to McDonald Dunn Research Forest and walked through the old growth forest. I found my first Helvella maculata in this old growth https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/66954886 , something I have never found in that part of the forest before. I was also so excited to observe a big patch of Helvella vespertina https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/66985937 growing right along side its parasitic Clitocybe, C. sclerotoidea! Last year our group went and observed the C. sclerotoidea, and over this year, I learned more about the parasitic nature of growing on H. vespertina. I will be interested to see how many more Clitocybe show up throughout the season.
On Tuesday, December 22nd, we went to a small wooded park in Salem, and found a variety of late fall mushrooms. This was the first time I got to see a huge flush of Armillaria mellea https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/66975421 . I have always seen pictures of them, but you can never get the full experience unless you see them first hand. Our hike around the trails at one point led us to walk through an ankle deep stream that had sprung up on the trail because we got so much rain this week. But that did not deter us from continuing on and being able to contribute to a Stereum Study on the other side of the US. We found an oak stand with a great flush of Stereum right across the trail from a stately Stropharia.
Our week isn't over and even though we can't celebrate the holidays with our friends and family, it is such a perfect time to reconnect with nature. There are so many things to observe and connect with right now. It might be rainy and cold, but it is always so exciting to kneel down in the mud, and use all your senses to learn something new. I see patterns now, something I was unaware of just one year ago.

Posted on 24 de dezembro de 2020, 01:57 AM by autumna autumna | 0 comentários | Deixar um comentário

25 de maio de 2020

Additional counties

I have added Clackamas, Multnomah and Hood River counties to our study area.

Posted on 25 de maio de 2020, 01:39 PM by henryy1355 henryy1355 | 0 comentários | Deixar um comentário

24 de fevereiro de 2020

Myco-geeks: Have Fungi, Will Travel

On February 22nd, our study group gathered about an hour away from Salem, in a small wooded conservatory called Miller's Woods. It had been below freezing for the past week and a scouting trip up to some higher elevation showed, there wasn't much fungi. So in a last minute decision we decided to walk the Miller's Woods.
We gathered at the park map to set our course and then the 5 of us set off to a path that led through the mixed forest of Oak, Alder and Douglas fir. We immediately noticed the wood-rotters, the Stereum sp.?, Trametes versicolor, and others fruiting on a few decomposing stumps. One stump had an interesting mat of velvety tissue on the top of the stump connected to the Trametes versicolor.
Our discussions led us to habitat identification where we found Claytonia perfoliata, or Miner's Lettuce. H.Y. told us that this plant gets its name from the Gold Rush era, where prospectors used to eat the leaves, high in vitamin C, to ward off scurvy. We also discussed the blossoming Lysichiton americanum, Skunk Cabagbage, the sprouting Bleeding Hearts and Fox Glove. As we passed over the wooden bridge, J.D. scouted the bank and found a gilled polypore growing out of the end of a rotting, moss covered branch.
Just a few steps later and our eyes tuned into our surroundings. We began seeing these little orange cups on the side of the hill by the trail. The more we looked, the more we found. There were hundreds of these little fungi and all of us got excited. We took photos, gathered specimens, and took our best guesses as to what they might be. The little 17mm cups, sitting on their rudimentary wrinkled stems were sitting in soil in this mixed Douglas fir forest. It had been pretty dry the previous week, but these spots were still very moist. Eventually, J.T. keyed them out to Geopyxis vulcanalis, or "Fairy Farts", with their smooth elliptical spores, in an 8 spore asci. The sulphur stench was unbelievable after we got them home and crushed them up a bit.
Continuing on our walk we found our beloved Clavulina rugosa and D.R. found a larger brown mushroom with white gills. We had all just studied the Entalomataceae family of fungi a few weeks ago, so our first thoughts were to place this in the Nolanea or Entaloma genera, but after keying this out D.R. found out this was Pluteus sp.?, or Deer Mushroom.
We looked in the mossy damp areas for the Scutellinia scutellata, but did not find any. Since our hour foray was over, we slowly headed back to our vehicles. But on the way J.D. went up to look at a little yellow fungi growing out of a tree and nearly stepped on a bunch of Helvella albella! I took some photos of this cute little saddle capped mushroom and gathered some specimens to look at microscopically.
After finding and discussing a few more specimens we said good bye to the woods and heading back to do our ID session and eat a well deserved lunch.

A few hours later we decided to go on another walk in Yamhill County and found Schizophyllum commune, Daedalea quercina, some Bird's Nest Fungi, more wood rotters, all the while keeping an eye out for the possible Morel. The Oak habitat seemed to be a perfect place to spot them, but it was still a bit too early in the season to find them.

Our little Myco-geek group, traveled three counties to study fungi and found some very interesting specimens to add to our winter observations in the Pacific Northwest.

Posted on 24 de fevereiro de 2020, 03:48 AM by autumna autumna | 0 comentários | Deixar um comentário

13 de fevereiro de 2020

Working In WVMS Mycoflora to Learn

I wanted to test out this feature to see how this works, and if it would be a suitable replacement for our system through Google. If you are a WVMS member, comment and let me know you can see this. I also wonder if this is public, can anyone see it?

This might be a good place to list homework assignments but if it is public, not for arranging foray meetups.

We could also use this for commenting on our trips out, like a journal, and list species and other observations.

Posted on 13 de fevereiro de 2020, 09:03 PM by autumna autumna | 1 comentário | Deixar um comentário

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