BULLETIN OF THE PUGET SOUND MYCOLOGICAL SOCIETY
Number 329, February 1997

Spore Prints

Electronic Edition is published monthly, September through Juneby the
Puget Sound Mycological Society
Center for Urban Horticulture, Box 354115
University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
(206) 522-6031

Agnes A. Sieger, Editor
Dick Sieger, HTML Editor




MEMBERSHIP MEETING

Tuesday, February 11, at 7:30 PM at the Center for UrbanHorticulture, 3501 N.E. 41st Street, Seattle

February’s program will feature facts, fantasies, andfiction concerning the cultivation of mushrooms. Ed Foy will lead adiscussion on the activities of the PSMS Cultivation Committee.Anyone from the membership is welcome to contribute facts,fantasies, or experiments they have tried. Successes andspectacular failures are equally welcome.

Would persons with last names beginning with Q–T pleasebring a plate of refreshments for the social hour?

CALENDAR

Feb. 2–9 Northwest Flower and Garden Show, SeattleConvention and Trade Center
Feb. 11 Membership meeting, 7:30 PM, CUH
Feb. 17 Board meeting, 7:30 PM, CUH Board Room
Feb. 21 Spore Prints deadline
Mar. 14 Survivors’ Banquet and Annual Meeting, EdmondsCommunity College

1997 SURVIVORS’ BANQUET Joanne Young

All of you who attended the Survivors’ Banquet in 1996know what a fabulous dining experience we shared. This year, ChefWalter Bronowitz and his capable staff and students of the CulinaryArts Program will again amaze us with their gourmet skills. Dinnerwill be served in the dining facilities of Edmonds CommunityCollege at 20000 68th Avenue West in Lynnwood.
Save the date: Friday, March 14. Doors will open at 6:30 PM, anddinner will be served at 7:30. Cost is $24.50 per person. You maybring your own wine, and glassware will be provided. Entree choicesare Spiced Seared Halibut with morel ragout and celeriac-rootcake or Vegetarian Grilled Portobellowith herbed grit cakes and roasted red pepper/blue cheeserelish.

The evening’s program will include announcements of newofficers and the presentation of the “Golden MushroomAward” for outstanding service to PSMS. After dinner,we’ll have music by PSMS member Brandon Matheny’s band,“What Goes On.”

Look in the printed copy of the newsletter for registrationinformation. Regristration is limited to PSMS members.FinalRegistration Deadline is March 5. Maximum seating is 90,so register right away! This will be the best banquet ever!Don’t miss it! See you there.

Directions to the Banquet Site

From northbound I-5: Go to Lynnwood exit 181, 44th Ave W.Turn left off the exit onto 44th Ave. W. (go under I-5). Turn leftat the next light, 200th SW. Go approx. 1.5 miles (crossing Hwy.99) to 68th W. See map for parking and dinner site. Enter at thenorthwest side of Brier Hall.

From southbound I-5: Go to Lynnwood exit 181, 196th SW.Turn right off the exit onto 196th. Go approx. 1.75 miles (crossingHwy. 99) and turn left at the 68th W. traffic light. See map forparking and dinner site. Enter at the northwest side of BrierHall.

MUSHROOMS NEEDED FOR THE BANQUET

We need as many mushrooms for the banquet as you are willing tocontribute. We especially need morels, but chanterelles, Boletusedulis, and shiitake are also welcome. Please bring driedmushrooms to the February meeting, or call Sara Clark or JoanneYoung to arrange for pickup. We would also appreciate donations offlowers for table decorations.

BOARD NEWS Agnes Sieger

Mike Lovelady will be the new Field Trip Chair. Ron Post may beable accept the position of Book Chair starting in April. There wasa good sign-up to man the PSMS booth at the Flower and Garden Show;the setup will be the same as last year. Dan Tanabe, BrandonMatheny, and Marshall Palmer will form an audit committee to checkon PSMS finances. The banquet will be $24.50 per person and held atEdmonds Community College. Sara Clark will be the banquetregistrar, and Lynn Phillips will be in charge of flowers for thetables. The trio “What Goes On” will be asked to play.Charles Pregaldin and Lorraine Dod will look into revising thebylaws. Marshall Palmer has ordered a computer desk and somereplacement shelving for the PSMS office. Charles Pregaldin willhave the PSMS computer ready by the February meeting. PatriceBenson will take the video camera in for a checkup and try to finda new operator. Russ Kurtz will try to book the Fall Foray onNovember 1, November 8, or October 25, in that order of preference.The joint Mountaineers/PSMS fieldtrip at Meany Lodge will be the weekend of October 11. Members mustrenew by March 1 or they will not be in the roster. Pregaldinrecommended registering the PSMS mushroom cards pending responsefrom the copyright center. Bernice suggested that the“interests” category on the new members questionnairebe more specific to mushrooming or occupation.

ELECTION

This year we are voting for a Vice President, Secretary, and sixTrustees. Please read the following profiles carefully and markyour choices on the ballot enclosed in the printed edition.

Vice-President

Joanne Young
I have enjoyed my 3 years as Exhibit Chair and year on theboard. Besides the foraging, culinary, and social aspects of PSMS,I really love a good lecture. As Vice President, I look forward tothe challenge of bringing to PSMS some of the fascinating peoplewho have made mycology their profession or avocation.

Secretary

Lorraine Dod
I am the current Secretary of PSMS. I am running for the positionfor another term because I believe my past knowledge of theboard’s business and PSMS general activities is a valuabletool to aid in the management of our society.

Trustees

Mike Lovelady
A member of PSMS for 3 years, I’ve learned much more than Iever dreamed of. I volunteered to help with the field trips becauseI love to see people discovering mushrooms for the first time andlearn more about them myself. I think I’m ready to grow inPSMS and do what I can to contribute to it.

Doug Ward
I strongly support the scientific, educational, and conservationalactivities of the Society, but see myself as representing those whojust enjoy the woods and the potential of a good meal. My wife,Theresa, and I maintain the PSMS membership data base and addressand mail the monthly Spore Prints.

Charles Pregaldin
I have served on the board for the past 2 years, have served asConstruction Chair for the past two annual exhibits, and will bethe Exhibit Chair for the 1997 show. I am particularly interestedin the role of fungi in ecosystems, mycophagy, and cultivation.

Wayne Elston
I joined PSMS in 1993 and have co-chaired the Society’s fieldtrips with my wife, Patrice, since May 1994. I feel I have much tocontribute to PSMS, and that it is time to move on and get involvedin other aspects of the Society.

Brandon Matheny
I have served 1 year as an alternate Trustee, 1 year as EducationChair, and 1 year on the Identification Committee. I also have 1year of experience with a small nonprofit land-preservationorganization. One goal of mine is to stress continual educationalopportunities for members via classroom instruction and fieldwork.

Bernice Velategui
Looking for mushrooms has been part of my life since childhood. Ijoined PSMS in 1970 and have been Membership Chair for the past 7years. A current member of the Board, I would like the opportunityto serve PSMS in that capacity for another 2 years.

Henry Lingat
Introduced to edible wild mushrooms by my family in wartimeGermany, I became curious about fungi in their various shapes andcolors. In 1992 I joined PSMS after attending the annual exhibit. Ihave benefited from the Society’s educational programs andfield trips and would like to be more actively involved.

Russ Kurtz
A retired veterinarian, I am a charter member of PSMS and a veryamateur mycologist who enjoys tramping the Cascades and Olympics.The Barlow Pass research project was one of my interests.Collecting for the annual exhibit is another. A current boardmember, I would to serve on the board again.

AMANITA PHALLOIDES EPIDEMIC Various

SAN FRANCISCO – The recent rains in California haveproduced a bumper crop of fungi. And as last year, when 13 peoplewere poisoned by wild mushrooms in the San Francisco area, goodnews for the knowledgeable mushroomer is proving bad news indeedfor the mycologically unwary.

The most deadly culprit has been Amanita phalloides, theso-called Death Cap. Recently, nine people who couldn’tresist its tempting flesh were hospitalized in the San Franciscoarea. Eight of the victims are expected to recover, although ateenage girl suffered liver damage so severe that she needed anorgan transplant to survive.

Sam Sebastiani Jr., 32, a member of the famed Sebastiani winefamily, wasn’t even that lucky. Sebastiani was admitted to aSan Francisco hospital on January 6, a day after eating wildmushrooms, apparently Amanita phalloides, while hiking withfriends in Santa Rosa near San Francisco. Family spokesman MichaelCoats said doctors considered a full or partial liver transplant.Family members stepped forward as potential donors, Coats says, butSebastiani’s condition was too severe. He remained incritical condition until his death on Tuesday, January 14.

Jeff Norris, a spokesman for the UCSF Medical Center, says that95% of mushroom poisonings on the West Coast are caused byAmanita phalloides, which produces a potent toxin that binds toproteins in liver cells and can quickly destroy the liver. Thefirst symptoms, stomach pains and severe watery diarrhea, begin 6to 24 hours after ingestion. Two or three days later, the damage tothe liver can be so severe that a transplant may be the only way ofsaving the person’s life.

Amanita phalloides was reportedly unknown in Californiauntil 1938, although Don Goetz of the Oregon Mycological Societyclaimed it was found in Lithia Park in Ashland, Oregon, in the1920s, where it had probably been introduced on the roots ofimported orchard stock. The mushroom gradually spread and hasflourished on the West Coast in recent years, extending its rangefrom Fresno to Washington State. (For years, Ben Woo, chartermember and first president of PSMS, had his own private patch inthe Mt. Baker area of Seattle.) It is mycorrhizal with hardwoods,in California usually with coast live oak, Quercusagrifolia. In Oregon, it is associated with chestnuts orfilberts. (The Amanita phalloides responsible for thepoisonings in the Portland area a few years ago were growing underold chestnut trees.)

“They are coming up this year in places they never didbefore,” says BillFreedman, head of the toxicology committee of the MycologicalSociety of San Francisco. “People must understand that thepretty white-and-green mushroom that looks so good and tastes sogood will kill.”

GREENHOUSE CHANTERELLES?

Eric Danell of the University of Agricultural Sciences inUppsala, Sweden, and Francisco Camacho of Oregon State Universityreported in the New Scientist that they had managed to growgolden chanterelles on pine seedlings in a laboratory.

Other formerly wild mushrooms, such as shiitake, have alreadysuccumbed to taming and show up on the shelves of the local upscalegrocery. Success has even recently been reported in farmingtruffles, those most famous, and expensive, of wild fungi. Untilnow, however, chanterelles, a mycorrhizal fungus which grows inpine forests, have defied attempts at cultivation.

Some gourmets complain that cultivated mushrooms do not taste asgood as the wild species. However, Danell and Camacho’seffort is being hailed as a breakthrough for mushroom lovers,especially since chanterelles are on the decline in Europe and nowhave to be imported from the United States.

Danell and Camacho said they hoped they could turn their hand toeven rarer and more expensive species such as the matsutake, amushroom so prized by Japanese gourmands that some sell forhundreds of dollars apiece.

DYEING WORKSHOP Sara Clark

Saturday, March 1, we’ll get together at 10:00 AM,mess around with dried-up fungi, and see what happens. Cost is$3.00. We’re limited to ten people. If more people areinterested, we’ll have a second meeting.

Notice: If the label on your printed edition of SporePrints says “96,” and you have not renewed yourdues, this will be your last newsletter.

Return to Spore Prints Menu

Return to PSMS Home Page