BULLETIN OF THE PUGET SOUND MYCOLOGICAL SOCIETY
Number 330, March 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

This month is the Annual Meeting and Survivors’ Banquet,to be held Friday, March 14, at Edmonds Community College under theaegis of Chef Walter Bronowitz.

CALENDAR

March 14 Survivors’ Banquet and Annual Meeting,Edmonds Community College
March 17 Board meeting
March 21 Spore Prints deadline
March 22 Field trip
March 22–3 Bryce Kendrick's mold workshop(pre-registered members only)
April 7 Basic ID class (pre-registered members only)
April 8 Membership meeting, 7:30 PM, CUH

FORAYS AND SYMPOSIUMS

Mushroom Dyers Symposium: The Eighth International FungiFibre Symposium will be held at Paul Smith’s College, PaulSmith’s New York, on August 5–10, 1997. ForInformation, write Susan Hopkins, P.O. Box 291, Oldwick, NJ08858.

Oregon Mycological Society Spring Foray: OMS willholda spring study foray at Wallowa Lake Camp on June 6–8under the guidance of Mike Beug. It’s a beautiful site, thecabins are heated, and the food is good. Mycological societymembers are welcome. For information, write Maggie Rogers, 1943 SELocust Ave., Portland, OR 97214, or e-mail rogersmm@aol.com.

THINK EXHIBIT Charles Pregaldin

October may be a long way off, but it’s not too soon tobegin planning for the 1997 PSMS Wild Mushroom Exhibit. Yes,I’m about to ask for your help, but not the kind you think.Although I’d be happy to accept offers of time, labor, money,etc., what I really need right now is your ideas.

I’m sure many of you would like to see things at the showthat we haven’t been doing or could suggest ways to improvethe things we do. Is there something you really don’t like,or something you like a lot and want to see more of? Maybe you knowsomebody, in the club or out of it, who could help us make the nextshow the best ever. Whether you’re an active member involvedin lots of club activities or someone who doesn’t have timeto do more than pay your dues and read the newsletter, whateveryour thoughts about shows past or future, I’d like to hearthem.

I’m open to anything—don’t worry at this stageabout whether your ideas are just vague concepts or fullythought-out plans or just a suggestion about one small detail.Don’t worry about cost or logistics or other practicalmatters. Those are concerns that can be addressed later.What’s needed now is your input.

Don’t be afraid that if you speak up I’ll pressureyou to work on one of the show committees, though of course yourhelp would be welcome if you want to give it.

Suggestions so far have included having activities especiallyfor kids, exhibits on fungal roles in ecosystems, lectures aboutvarious mycological topics, ideas about the physical layout of theshow, a request to put a microphone on the chefs who aredemonstrating mushroom cookery, complaints about the signage, andso on. Thoughts on these topics or any others are welcome.

I can be reached by e-mail at bugatti@seanet.com. Let me hearfrom you, and thank you for your help.

BASIC MUSHROOM ID CLASS Brandon Matheny

A basic mushroom identification class on springtime mushroomswill be held on three consecutive Monday evenings from7–9 PM.The dates are April 7 through April 21. Thisclass will introduce participants to the identification of morelsand their allies, boletes, the gilled mushrooms that fruit in thespring, and mushroom poisons. The class will emphasizedistinguishing edible species from inedible look-alikes.Instruction and tips on collecting practices and where to findspringtime mushrooms will also be emphasized. Stress will be placedon attending scheduled PSMS field trips, though attendance is notmandatory.

Required Text: The New Savory Wild Mushroom, 3rd edition,by Margaret McKenny and Daniel Stuntz, revised and enlarged byJoseph Ammirati, 1987. This is the book for the mushroom hunter ofthe Pacific Northwest who wants to know “What is it?”and “Is it good to eat?”

Recommended Texts: (1) A Morel Hunter’s Companion,by Nancy Smith Weber, 1995. For those who are particularlyinterested in the many facets of morels and their allies—names and classification, biology, recipes, cooking, preserving,and poisonings—this book is highly recommended. (2)Mushrooms Demystified, 2nd Edition, by David Arora, 1986. Ihesitate to require this text for a 3-week course, but you might aswell get it. This voluminous tome will come in especially handy forthe fall ID classes and is a wonderful reference to have lyingaround. Among other virtues, it has dichotomous keys and adictionary of selected Latin and Greek word elements.

Books will be offered for sale before the first class. Pleasearrive early to make your purchase(s).

This class will be limited to the first 24 registrants who mustbe members of PSMS. Registration information is in the printededition of the newsletter.

MOLD WORKSHOP WITH BRYCE KENDRICK Brandon Matheny

Dr. W.Bryce Kendrick from Sidney, B.C., will be conducting a workshopon molds. Well-known for his work in the fields of imperfect fungiand Zygomycetes, among other things, Bryce presents an opportunityfor PSMS members to expound upon fungi that grow right in our ownrefrigerators, on our bread and window sills, and in otherunthought of but opportunistic places.

Workshop Requirements
Participants will be expected to contribute moldy materials forhands-on study. Please prepare an informal “dampchamber” to incubate various substrates for at least severaldays in advance (no meat, fish, or long-lived storage tissues suchas potatoes). Potentially interesting substrates would be tropicalfruit, old bracket fungi, dried mushrooms, dead insects, etc.Please try anything. You may come up with something veryinteresting, The workshop will entail microscopy (minimalexperience with a compound microscope is required) and work with acomputer key/database. If you have a laptop computer, please bringit. In addition, you may want to bring lunch and/or snacks.

Registration
The workshop consists of sessions on Saturday, March 22, andSunday, March 23. Cost is $30. Size is limited to 15 participantswho must be menbers of PSMS. Registration information is in theprinted edition of the newsletter.

FLOWER AND GARDEN SHOW Colleen Compton

A big thank-you to all those PSMS members who staffed themycology booth at the 1997 Flower and Garden Show. Those volunteersintroduced our club and it’s activities to the public whileanswering various questions about the fascinating world of fungi.Over a dozen new members joined as a result of this exposure. Aspecial thanks to those who also worked to set up and dismantle thebooth. Paul Stametsgraciously donated examples of cultivated, fruiting mushrooms. Thisis very useful in a February exhibit when the woodlands arescarcely producing. Lynne ElwelI has offered to chair the PSMSbooth for the 1998 Flower and Garden Show. We will gather togetherand give her our best support.

SPRING FIELD TRIPS Mike Lovelady

Spring is in the air! Can mushrooms be far behind? Our firstfield trip this year is a half-day excursion on March 22 to lookfor Verpa bohemica. The schedule for the rest of the springfield trips will be in the printed edition of the April SporePrints.

March 22 Field Trip (30 miles east of Seattle)

This is our traditional half-day trip to introduce newcomers tothe mushroom Verpa bohemica and its habitat and whet theappetite for the spring mushrooms to come. We will meet for ageneral introduction to mushroom hunting. Then we will break intosmall groups and go out to gather specimens. Identifiers should beavailable around 10:30 AM. There should be Verpabohemica under the cottonwoods in the surrounding area.We’ll meet rain or shine. You may want to bring lunch.

FUN IN OLD BOOKS Ellen Warren
Mycelium, Mycological Society of Toronto, Jan.-March1997

Getting high on literature is taking on a whole new meaning. Itturns out that if you spend enough time around old books anddecaying manuscripts in dank archives, you can start tohallucinate. Really. We’re not talking psychedelic Lucy inthe Sky with Diamonds stuff, here. But, maybe, only a step or twoaway from that.

Experts on the various fungi that feed on the pages and on thecovers of books are increasingly convinced that you can gethigh—or at least a little wacky—by sniffing old books.Fungus on books, they say, is a likely source of hallucinogenicspores. The story of the “Strangeness in the Stacks”first started making its way through the usually staid antiquarianbooks community late last year with the publication of a paper inthe British medical journal The Lancer.

There, Dr. R. J. Hay wrote of the possibility that “fungalhallucinogens” in old books could lead to “enhancementof enlightenment.” “The source of inspiration for manygreat literary figures may have been nothing more than a quicksniff of the bouquet of moldy books,” wrote Hay, one ofEngland’s leading mycologists.

Well, said an American expert on such matters, it may not bethat easy. “I agree with his premise but not his dose. Itwould take more than a brief sniff,” said Monica Rossol, anauthority on the health effects of materials used in the artsworld.

For all the parents out there, these revelations would seemideal for persuading youngsters to spend some quality time in thearchives. But attention, kids. You can’t get high walkingthrough the rare books section of the library. Rossol said it wouldtake a fairly concentrated exposure over a considerable period oftime for someone to breathe in enough of the fungus to seriouslyaffect behavior. There are no studies to tell how much or how longbefore the strange behaviors take hold.

Still, this much seems apparent. If you want to find mold, theonly place that may rival a refrigerator is a library. Justrecently, the Las Cruces, New Mexico, public library was closedindefinitely, prompted by health concerns after a fungus outbreakin the reference section. Library director Carol Brey said thefungus promptly spread to old history books and onward to theliterature section.

The town’s Mold Eradication Team, she said, shuttered thelibrary as a precaution. “We didn’t want to take anychances,” she said. A mold removal company will address theproblem, which is believed to have originated in the airconditioning system. Brey, who suffers from allergies, said she hasnoted minor increases in her coughing, runny nose, and sneezing.But nobody has reported any hallucinogenic effects.

THE INUIT PUJOALUK Lawrence Millman

Mycelium, Mycological Society of Toronto, Jan.–Mar.1997 (Adapted from an article in the October 1996 Bulletin,the Newsletter of the Boston Mycological Club, which reprinted it,with permission, from Mushroom The Journal)

The Inuit tend to regard mushrooms as being without exceptioninedible. They’ll eat raw seal eyes or igunaq (putrefiedwalrus meat) with nary a qualm, but a Psathyrella polaris, aHebeloma fastible, or even an Omphalina ericetorumseems to fill them with disgust. No doubt this disgust derives fromthe time-honored belief—still observed amongtraditionalists—that mushrooms are, in fact, the excrement ofshooting stars. And shooting star excrement is not the sort of dishyou’d be inclined to eat unless sorely pressed.

Yet, the Inuit do not avoid mushrooms altogether, as I learnedthis past summer while traveling around the Kimmirut region ofBaffin island. Whenever I mentioned mushrooms, I’d beinvariably told about one type that possessed medicinal qualities.This mushroom was called pujoaluk in Inuktitut. At one point, anold woman went out and gathered a batch for me. In her sack, Ifound several different species of Lycoperdon puffballs.This led me to conclude that the Inuit view all Lycoperdonspecies as pujoaluks.

Of the Lycoperdons in the woman’s sack, I could identifyone right away. It was a Lycoperdon pusillum, otherwiseknown as a Mini Puffball. Another might have been the Arcticversion of Lycoperdon gemmatum, although I couldn’t bewholly certain without a field guide. Yet another was probably anunknown species, at least unknown to mycologists.

As I soon learned, the Inuit use a pujoaluk rather like abandage. If someone jabs his hand with a knife or harpoon,he’ll place a piece of white pujoaluk flesh on the wound andthen tie it there with a string. This not only keeps the wound fromgetting infected, but aids and abets the healing process as well.Or so the woman who’d gathered the mushrooms informed me.Also, a pujoaluk reputedly stops the flow of blood from the wound.But the flesh must be firm, the woman remarked, or else themushroom is useless—a truth that anyone who has ever eatenLycoperdons likewise knows.

Europeans once used mushrooms in exactly the same way. Forexample, a 1756 article in The Gentleman’s Magazinerefers to “the agaric sent from France and applied as astyptic after amputations,” while, a decade later, Gooch, inhis Treatment of Wounds, describes a similar application,albeit with puffballs. And, as recently as 1919, Whitla’sPharmacy mentions Lycoperdon giganteum as “a softand comfortable surgical dressing. The dusty powder is a powerfulhaemostat.”

In former times, Native American tribes as diverse as theKwakiutl, the Pawnee, the Cherokee, and the Navaho likewise usedpuffballs as styptic. The Blackfoot drank an infusion of Calvatia to stop internal bleeding. Nowadays, however, theonly denizens of the New World apart from the Inuit themselves whoregularly use puffballs to treat wounds are the Maya, who collectvarious Geastrum species for this purpose.

Not having suffered a wound during last summer’s sojournin the Arctic, I didn’t put the immune-activating propertiesof the puffball to the test. Maybe that’s just as well. Formaybe this piece of mycological knowledge should remain with thepeople for whom medical care is often a long boat ride inhypothermic waters away.

DOGGONE!

French police were looking for the dognappers of sevenexperienced truffle dogs that disappeared in southern France at theheight of the truffle season . The dogs are used for huntingtruffles, pungent edible fungi that grow underground in Frenchoak forests. The dogs can be worth as much as $2,700. The policesuspect truffle hunters from a neighboring area. Three dogs havebeen found, but the others are still missing. At a meeting of thetown mayor, truffle hunters, and police, suggestions for solvingthe problem included offering rewards for the dogs’ returnand using dog collars with electronic tracking devices.

Return to Spore Prints Menu

Return to PSMS Home Page