BULLETIN OF THE PUGET SOUND MYCOLOGICALSOCIETY
Number 332, May 1997
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, May 13, at 7:30 pm at the Center for UrbanHorticulture, 3501 NE 41 Street, Seattle
May's program features Dr. Nancy Smith Weber, renownedmycologist and morel expert from Oregon State University. The titlefor her talk is "Spring-Fruiting Morels and Related Cup-Fungi ofthe Pacific Northwest."
Nancy is a graduate of The University of Michigan, where shestudied the Michigan species of Helvella for her Ph.D.dissertation and met her husband. She grew up in a mycologicalfamily and is co-author with one or both of her parents (Alexanderand Helen Smith) on four books on mushrooms. Since 1990 she hasbeen affiliated with the Department of Forest Science at OregonState University, where she has been studying the morels, relatedcup fungi, and truffles of the western United States with thesupport of grants from the National Science Foundation. The trueand false morels hold special interest for her; she is involved inseveral projects aimed at better understanding these fungi in avariety of ways, some of which she will mention at the meeting.
Nancy is known to be an excellent speaker, relating well tomushroom hobbyists and experts alike. Don't miss this timelyprogram.
Would members with last names beginning with A–F pleasebring a dish of refreshments for the social hour.
CALENDAR
May 13 Membership meeting, 7:30 PM, CUH (Nancy SmithWeber)
May 17–18 Field trip
May 19 Board meeting
May 23 Spore Prints deadline
May 24–25 Field trip
May 30–June 1 Field trip
June 2 Basic ID Class for members and guests who haveregistered
June 9 Basic ID Class for members and guests who haveregistered
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE Marshall Palmer
Now that the election results have been finalized, it's time towelcome the new Trustees of our organization. Wayne Elston, aftermanaging our field trips (with his wife Patrice) for the past twoyears, is a new trustee. Henry Lingat, a long-time member andvolunteer, has also been elected to a two-year term. BrandonMatheny, tireless Identifier and Education Chair, joins the Boardas well this year. Also elected as alternates and appointed to fillopen terms for the coming year are Charles Pregaldin (our AnnualExhibit Chair), Doug Ward (who manages the Spore Printsmailing and the membership database), and Mike Lovelady (our FieldTrip Chair). Three of our Board members are continuing this year:Lorraine Dod (reelected as Secretary), Russ Kurtz (reelected asTrustee), and Joanne Young (elected as Vice-President). Dan Coreyhas graciously agreed to serve as Alternate Trustee. Thanks to allof you for your commitment to PSMS!
This past year, we at PSMS have been fortunate to have had agroup of very industrious and dedicated Trustees. With newelections in March, some of them have left the Board and aredeserving of our heartfelt gratitude. Marsi DiGiovanni completedhis second term as Trustee with an extended resume of volunteercontributions to our events. Marsi was a frequent contributor toour meetings, field trips, and forays. Mary Lynch was appointedVice-President to complete the year remaining for that office. Marybrought much energy to our organization and we have benefited fromher financial acumen. Due to increased professionalresponsibilities and related travel she declined to run for officeat this time. Sheila Parr resigned from the Board due to her returnto school. We particularly appreciate her two years of service asBook Chair. Frances Ikeda completed a two-year term as Trustee inMarch. Frances always brought a sense of calmness and wisdom toBoard meetings, which was particularly appreciated during some ofour more "animated" discussions. Frank Ikeda, unfortunately, had toresign for health reasons. Sadly, Frank recently passed away.
To remember Frank's contributions to our organization, one hasonly to think to the Annual Exhibit and recognize that such acomplicated and challenging event only occurs because of memberswho are as generous with their time as Frank Ikeda. Many, manytimes he was heard to say, "Let me know if you need help withthat." Often, we did let him know, and he was always there toassist. Our deepest sympathies go to his wife, Frances.
VERPA "CONICA" WANTED Joanne Young
Nancy Smith Weber asks people to bring in Verpa "conica"to the meeting together with a note on who collected it, the dateof collection, and the place. Dried specimens as well as freshspecimens are welcome. Verpa conica has a smooth cap withfew wrinkles. There appears to be two species or at least twovarieties in this group in the Pacific Northwest, and she is tryingto learn more about their distribution and time of fruiting.
SORRY, BEATRIX Agnes Sieger
A century later, the Linnean Society of London hasfinally apologized to BeatrixPotter for scorning her paper on the germination of mushroomspores, which she tried to submit to the Society in 1897.
Largely known today for her children's stories, Beatrix Potterwas also an enthusiastic and knowledgeable amateur mycologist. Inanother time, she would have been a respected scientist, butintellectual women of her day were considered dilettantes. Herwatercolors of fungi had superb taxonomic detail, but weredismissed as too artistic to have scientific value. She was thefirst person in England to realize that lichens are symbioticrelationships between algae and fungi, but her idea was ridiculedby an esteemed botanist. Learning that mycologists didn't know howto culture fungal spores, she studied spore growth through themicroscope for long hours, and in April 1897 submitted a paper,"The Germination of the Spore of Agaricineae," to the LinneanSociety. According to John Marsden, present executive secretary ofthe Society, "Her paper had to be refereed by two people, one ofwhom was Sir William Thistleton-Dyer. Although he apparently knewnext to nothing about botany, he became the director of KewGardens, so was highly respected." He scorned her ideas andsuggested she should go back to school before trying to teachexperts. She withdrew the paper, and it was burned with otherpapers after her death in 1943.
One-hundred years later, a booklet, Flora for Fauna,illustrated with her drawings is being published by the LinneanSociety, and their Program of Events for April features a talk byDr. Roy Watling, FLS, on "Beatrix Potter as a Mycologist—ThePeriod Before Peter Rabbit and Friends."
BOARD NEWS Agnes Sieger
Because of an overwhelming work schedule, Brian Luther has askedfor more identifiers, plus those with microscope skills, to helpout at the field trips. Patrice Benson will lay out the roster, andIrwin Kleinman will reproduce it. Thirty-nine dropped membersrejoined after receiving postcard reminders from Patrice. Anotherset of Basic ID classes will be held in June. Ron Post is the newBook Chair; he wants to recruit two assistants. Dave Cole isarranging a summer picnic. Beginning with the May issue, SporePrints will be sent bulk mail. The Fall Foray will be November12.
March 22nd FIELD TRIP Brian S. Luther
March 22 turned out to be a pleasant day for such an earlyouting, and we had a pretty good turnout of 30 or so people. Theparking lot that we normally use was still under water from recentflooding, and unfortunately so were the cottonwood groves where wenormally walk to.
I gave a brief talk and introduction on collecting, thedevelopment of Verpa fruiting bodies, their association withBlack Cottonwoods, and some of the cooking methods and potentialproblems with eating them. Bill Bridges and Mike Lovelady were thegroup leaders, but they didn't get very far because of' thegauntlet of water. So, collecting was done in mixed woods on higherground and was rewarded with the same assortment of earlyfungi.
Several nice collections of verpas (Ptychoverpa bohemica)were found, and 27 different species of fungi were displayed. A fewpeople with sharp eyes were lucky enough to find the beautifulScarlet Cup (Sarcoscypha coccinea), and Bill Bridges had a nicecollection of Oyster Mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus). I setup my field microscope and gave everyone the chance to seeVerpa spores. There seemed to be an air of excitement amongall those who attended, perhaps anticipating a fun-filled season offield trips and fungi.
APRIL 12th FIELD TRIP Brandon Matheny
Sara Clark and I examined collections of fungi brought to the IDtable on Saturday, April 12. Dave Cole, Bill Mitchell, and StevenBell hit fresh patches of Verpa bohemica that would amass toseveral meals each. Mike Lovelady brought in interestingcollections of Psathyrella hydrophila, Schizophyllum commune, and what may be Mycenaoccidentalis. Tiny fruitings of Gyromitra, presumablyG. esculenta, were brought to the table along withcollections of Sarcoscypha coccinea, Polyporuselegans, Ganoderma applanatum, and Phellinusigniarius. No true morels were out yet. Be on the lookout foran 11 year-old whiz kid, whose Turkish name failed to stick to mybrain. However, his enthusiasm and knowledge of mushrooms isincredibly encouraging. Younger generations of PSMSers will not belost.
BASIC MUSHROOM ID CLASS Brandon Matheny
Because of spring's late arrival in the mountains and demand forBasic ID instruction, PSMS is offering another Basic Mushroom IDClass on springtime mushrooms, which will be held on threeconsecutive Monday evenings, 79 PM at the Center for UrbanHorticulture. The dates are June 2, June 9, and June 16. This classwill introduce participants to the identification of boletes,morels and their allies, the gilled mushrooms that fruit in thespring, and mushroom poisons. The class will emphasize determiningedible species from inedible look-alikes. Instruction and tips oncollecting practices and where to find springtime mushrooms willalso be emphasized. Stress will be placed on attending scheduledPSMS field trips, though attendance is not mandatory.
Required Text: The New Savory Wild Mushroom, 3rd edition,by Margaret McKenny and Daniel Stuntz, revised and enlarged byJoseph Ammirati, 1987, will be the required text. This is the bookfor the mushroom hunter of the Pacific Northwest who wants to know"What is it?" and "Is it good to eat?"
Recommended Texts: (1) A Morel Hunter's Companion byNancy Smith Weber, 1995. For those who are particularly interestedin the many facets of morels and their allies, names andclassification, biology, recipes, cooking, preserving, andpoisonings this book is highly recommended. (2) MushroomsDemystified, 2nd edition, by David Arora, 1986. I hesitate torequire this text for a three week course, but you might as wellget it (it's not required!). This voluminous tome will come inspecial handy for the fall ID classes and is just a wonderfulreference to have lying around. Among other virtues, it hasdichotomous keys and a dictionary of selected Latin and Greek wordelements.
Books will be offered for sale before the first class. Pleasearrive early to make your purchase(s). This class will be limitedto the first 24 registrants who must be members of PSMS or theSnohomish Mycological Society.
To register, please see the instructions in the printed editionof the newsletter.
SUMMER PICNIC Dave Cole
It's not too soon to start thinking about the summer picnic.This year's picnic is scheduled for Sunday, July 13th and we havereserved a Seattle Parks Department shelter.
MOLD WORKSHOP Dick Sieger
Dr. Bryce Kendrick came from Sidney, B.C., on March 2223 to leada weekend workshop on molds attended by Brandon Matheny, PatriceBenson, Sara Clark, Stephen Curtice, and Dick Sieger. We worked onmicroscopic identification of Hyphomycetes using Dr. Kendrick'smagnificent askSamdatabase of 1306 form-genera and referring to the drawings inGenera of Hyphomycetes. We learned that many asexual fungi(anamorphs) have sexual stages (teleomorphs). Morels, for example,have an anamorph that may be seen as a mold growing on the forestfloor in the fall. We saw rare beauty in the microscopicexamination of molds that we had grown on unsavory scraps in moistchambers. We saw a Botrytis and learned that Botrytiscinerea, the "noble rot" essential for the production ofSauternes, has a form reminiscent of the grapes on which it grows.All who attended the workshop will joyously welcome specimens ofmoldy herbivore turds. We will meet from time to time to studymolds and perhaps to work on a recipe book.
MEET THE SIEGERS Inga Wilcox
Can a New Yorker find happiness in the West? Just ask DickSieger. Agnes, his wife, will concur. Both have been members ofPSMS since 1973. Dick served as President from 1992 to 1994 whileAgnes has been our Spore Prints editor for 12 years. Herprofile appeared in the October 1993 issue, so this will focus onDick.
Dick grew up in New York City but left just before his Stuyvesant High Schoolgraduation ceremony and moved to Colorado. He attended schoolthere, and after a stint in the Army returned to Denver. He reallygot into outdoor activities, spending a two-week vacation hiking inthe wilderness by himself when hiking was not yet the thing to do.Having moved on to Utah, he met Agnes there. Both enjoy theoutdoors, canoeing, hiking, and collecting wild plants. Anexperiment in cooking skunk cabbage provided something that smelledterrible, looked terrible, and was tossed out.
They moved to Seattle, where Agnes immediately found a job atthe University of Washington (she just received her 30-year pin)and Dick continued as sales representative for a line of kitchencabinets. Their vacations were spent outdoors, taking along fieldguides to help identify mushrooms they had noticed while lookingfor wild plants. Dick remembers a beach hike from Cape Alava to LaPush when they met only one group of Boy Scouts. "There was nobodyout there, and mushrooming was like that too."
Having "qualified" he joined an advanced study group of PSMSmembers taught by Dr. Stuntz. During these Summer classes he gotinterested in serious mushrooming. He learned a lot from Jenny andDave Schmitt and became a member of the Pacific Northwest KeyCouncil, specializing in Lepiota. He likes to studyAscomycetes and has a microscope at home. His favored edible fungusis Laetiporus sulphureus. This is a great mushroom whenpicked young, but it matures quickly and is seldom found in goodcondition. Successful mushroom finds make for happy memories:perfect days with lots of large Boletus edulis or the choiceAgaricus augustus.
Dick enjoys computer work and loves to cook; he also gives talksto other mushrooms groups, having started out giving talks on winemaking. Richard and Agnes enjoy exploring new territories in theircamper. Then they look for mushrooms. For people who do not keep ajournal or who follow the seasons, Dick states: "We find enough byaccident." The answer to the first question has to be "yes."
OREGON MYCOLOGICAL SOCIETY SPRING FORAY
PSMS members are cordially invited to the Oregon MycologicalSociety's Spring in the Blue Mountains June 68. For registrationinformation, see the printed edition of the newsletter.