BULLETIN OF THE PUGET SOUND MYCOLOGICALSOCIETY

Spore Prints

Number 345, October 1998

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 MEMBERSHIP MEETING

Tuesday, October 13, at 7:30 PM at the Center for UrbanHorticulture, 3501 NE 41st Street, Seattle.

This month Taylor Lockwood, world traveler and mushroom"portrait photographer," will present his famous multimedia slideshow "Treasures >From The Kingdom of Fungi." Just back from atrip to Southeast Asia, Taylor has hundreds (or thousands) of newexotic mushroom slides. Come to the October meeting and see thelatest version of his marvelous show. You’ll see mushrooms asyou never have before.

This spring, Taylor produced a full page color photo-montage forthe cover of the New York Times Science Section. If youmissed seeing it, or if you’d like a sneak preview ofTaylor’s work, check his web site at http://www.mcn.org/2/tfl/

Along with Taylor’s show, we’ll hear the latestplans for the Annual Exhibit, have a chance to sign up for theshow, and pick up posters to distribute.

Members with last names beginning with the letters R–Z arerequested to bring a plate of refreshments for the social hour.

CALENDAR

Oct. 10 Field Trip
Oct. 13 Membership meeting, 7:30 PM, CUH
Oct. 17–18 Moutaineers/PSMS Weekend
Oct. 19 Board Meeting
Oct. 23 Spore Prints deadline
Nov. 7 Annual Exhibit, 12:00–8:00 PM, CUH
Nov. 8 Annual Exhibit, 10:00 AM–6:00 PM, CUH

NON-PSMS MUSHROOM EVENTS

Oct. 10–11 Snohomish County Mycological Societymushroom show.
Oct. 9–11 Vancouver Mycological Society fall foray,Paradise Valley north of Squamish, B.C.
Oct. 18 Olympic Peninsula Mycological Society mushroom show,Tri-Area Community Center, Chimacum, WA.
Oct. 18 Vancouver Mycological Society mushroom show, FloralHall, Van Dusen Botanical Gardens, 27th & Oak Street,Vancouver, B.C.
Oct. 22–25 Oregon Mycological Society Fall Foray, CampTapawingo, Oregon.
Oct. 25South Vancouver Island Mycological Society mushroomshow, Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary.

PSMS ANNUAL EXHIBIT Charles Pregaldin

As I write this, we’ve finally had our first day of rainy,cool weather after what the newspapers are calling the driestsummer ever in the Puget Sound basin. Perhaps that means it’sjust as well that a change in the UW Husky football schedule forcedus to postpone this year’s PSMS Annual Wild Mushroom Exhibituntil later than usual. (This year’s show will be November 7and 8, at the Center for Urban Horticulture.) Mushroom seasonpromises to be late this year, so it may be that, despite ElNiño and Husky football, we’ll have another excellentyear, with plenty of specimens for the display tables.

Of course, it takes much more than good luck and favorableweather to make the show (the largest of its kind in North America)happen. It also takes the hard work of many volunteers from oursociety—that’s where you come in.

As the attached list of committee chairs indicates, a number ofcommittees still do not have chairs. The people who volunteer tohead up committees are critical to the success of theshow—they ensure that the work of that committee gets done,in large part by coordinating the efforts of the volunteers whomake up the bulk of the committee and who do the bulk of the work.This year we have an urgent need for people to step forward andhelp their Society by contributing their time and effort ascommittee chairs.

Even if you don’t want to serve as a committee chair, theneed is just as urgent for volunteers to serve on all committees.We need your help to do all of the myriad tasks that go into asuccessful show—collecting mushrooms in the field, arrangingthem on the display trays, moving the trays to the exhibit hall,leading tours for visitors to the show, staffing ticket sales, booksales, membership, and other booths during the show, helping toprepare the food for the cooking demonstrations, helping withsetting up and tearing down the show, preparing and serving foodfor the volunteers in the hospitality kitchen, etc., etc., etc.

Whether you’re new to the Society, or have been a memberfor many years, we need your help.

Nothing can happen without you. If you’re a newcomer, thisis an excellent opportunity to get more involved in the Society, tomeet people, to learn more about mushrooms, and most of all to havea lot of fun. Come to think of it, the same applies if you’vebeen a member for a long time.

So come on, folks, step right up and pitch in! You can sign upat the upcoming October membership meeting or, if you can’tmake it to the meeting, call the committee chair or me.

COMMITTEE CHAIRS

Show Chair, Charles Pregaldin
Arts & Crafts, Vacant
Banner, Bill Bridges
Black Light, Vacant
Book Sales, Ron Post
Brochure, Charles Pregaldin
Clean-up, Lynn Phillips
Commercial Display, FungiPerfecti
Conservation & Ecology, Vacant
Construction, Charles Pregaldin
Cooking, Wayne Elston
Cultivation, Ed Foy
Decoration, Vacant
Feel & Smell, Dennis Krabbenhoft
Habitat Display, Vacant
Hospitality, Marilyn Denney
Identification, Brian Luther
Labels Data Base, John Kunz
Labeling, Larry Baxter
Membership, Bernice Velategui
Microscopy, Brandon Matheny
Moss Collection, Gilbert Austin
Mushroom Collecting, Russ Kurtz
Mushroom Sculptures, Vacant
Poster Design, Joanne Young
Publicity, D. V. Corey
Receiving, Coleman Leuthy
Parking & Security, Vacant
Signs, Marilyn Droege
Slide Show, Vacant
T-Shirt Design, Joanne Young
Ticket Sales & Greeters, Lorraine Dod
Tray Arrangement, Marian Maxwell
Tray Transport, Vacant
Tray Tours, Vacant

BOARD NEWS Agnes Sieger

Brandon Matheny discussed the bolete study he is leading. Thepurpose is to record species and distribution of Boletusgenus in Washington State. This study will provide useful taxonomicand floral information as well as helping to develop ID skills ofmembers. Doug Ward reported that the computer is installed andrunning with Office 95 and Access. PSMS liaison Joanne Youngmentioned that approx. 17 PSMS identifiers had been lined up forthe 2-day Wenachee macrofungi survey under the direction of MickMueller. She invited any member of the Board that seriously wantsto participate. Doug Ward requested that $200 be allocated to apresident’s discretionary fund for the remainder of 1998 andthat a to-be-determined amount become a regular budget item. Dougreminded the Board to be thinking of people to nominate forVice-President, Secretary, and Board positions in the 1999 electionand about nominations for the Golden Mushroom award. Steve Bell,Ron Post, and Corey volunteered for the 1999 Banquet committee;Corey will contact Wayne Elston and Walter Bronowitz. PSMSwebmaster Steve Bell asked for suggestions for increasing thevisibility of the PSMS website. Doug Ward moved that a websitestanding committee be authorized; motion passed. Jim Berlsteinasked about obtaining a DEA waver for psilocybin mushrooms andchloral hydrate solution. This would protect the Society andeducators while engaged in mushroom ID or study. Brandon Mathenywill look into it.

BOLETE STUDY Brandon Matheny

Response to the bolete study notice in the September SporePrints was promising, with ten members showing up at ourinitial meeting. Likewise, several people out of town haveresponded by phone and are seeking ways to contribute. Below is alist of goals of the study. If you believe you can help in any ofthese areas, feel free to contact me. Work has already begun onassembling slides or prints ofboletes for consideration on our PSMS web site. Future meetingswill discuss taxonomic questions, further logistics, and thegeneration of a key.

Goals:

1. to determine the bolete (Boletus) flora of Washingtonstate; to include members of other genera as will permits

2. to exercise and develop taxonomic (identification andclassification) skills, including taking spore prints, notingmacroscopic features, preserving interesting or unidentifiablecollections, taking habitat notes, and depositing collections inthe herbarium at the University of Washington

3. to generate a dichotomous (or synoptic) key to boletes

4. to assemble photographs (slides or prints)

5. to gather culinary information—recipes, culinary merit,discussion of various species

6. to download the key, photographs, and culinary information onour PSMS website

7 to inventory the University of Washington herbarium onBoletus, utilizing a database

8. to generate biogeographical data

9. to have a good time.

Given the nature of online information, we can easily update ourkey and other bolete topics as new data are gathered. There waseven talk of a bolete booth at our exhibit in November.

MISSED POTLUCK RECIPE   Dick Sieger

Two dozen people and three dogs, Border Collies Tip and Wizardand squirrel-watching Comet, came to the September 12th field trip,but only Agnes Sieger, Wizard, and I stayed for the potluck.We’re sorry you missed it, so here’s our recipe.

Mystery Mushroom Surprise

1 chicken, peeled, boned, and cut into nuggets
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, grated
1 garlic clove, pressed
some corn starch mixed with Chinese dark soy sauce
green and red bell pepper chunks
Walla Walla sweet onion pieces
unsalted cashews
baby corn
pineapple chunks
catch-of-the-day mushrooms
peanut oil
sherry, brown sugar, corn starch in liquid

Marinate the chicken with ginger, garlic, and the cornstarch/soy sauce mixture. Later, stir fry everything in oil. Unlessyou have a lot of experience and plenty of heat under your wok,it’s best to cook the ingredients separately, reserve them,and combine them at the end. Brown the chicken over medium heat andthen turn up the heat for the rest of the ingredients. Barely brownthe cashews, baby corn, and pineapple. Cook the bell pepper andonion together until the onion is translucent. Prepare and stir-frythe mushrooms in a manner appropriate for the species. We thinlysliced revived shiitake, added a little soaking liquid, andcontinued cooking after the liquid evaporated. Finally, combineeverything in the wok and reheat, adding some sherry, brown sugar,and enough corn starch suspended in liquid to coat everything witha little gravy. Sprinkle Dick’s portion with cayenne pepper.We washed this down with Joseph PhelpsGrenache Rosé and were better people for theexperience.

SEPTEMBER 12 FIELD TRIP REPORT  Brian Luther

The ground was dangerously dry and crunchy underfoot, the riverwas so low you could walk across it, and there were few mushroomsto speak of, but the weather was beautiful September 12 for ourfirst Fall field trip. The old CCC shelter at the Forest Servicecamp was still off limits because of a slow renovation project (theonly work that appears to have been done this whole last year isthe removal of the old fireplace and chimney).

Twenty-four people signed in and, considering the conditions, itappears that everybody was anxious to get out for a day. Host GarySmith had coffee ready and a good selection of maps so that wecould dream about going someplace where there were mushrooms.Harold Schnarre led a group of beginners out to demonstrate firsthand how to tell that conditions are not favorable for mushroomcollecting. Still, when you get a bunch of people wandering througheven the driest woods, it’s quite surprising what’sbrought back. One of the more notable contributions to the ID tablewas an old, half used bar of soap, which stimulated a great deal ofscientific discussion and inquiry. Just enough real fungi werefound, however, to confirm our day’s mission. Twenty-fourspecies were displayed, including nine polypores, eight agarics(gilled fungi), one bolete, one Ascomycete parasite, twocantharelloid fungi, one gastromycete and two slime molds. Thanksto Sara Clark and Lynn Catlin for helping with identification andDick Sieger for demonstrating his powerful new laptop with remotecapabilities. Interesting finds included Lyophyllum connatumand Thaxterogaster pingue. Even conks were in short supply,but did provide hours of endless entertainment for anyone who waslucky enough to find one and had a pen or a stick to draw on it.Since the prospects didn’t look too good for having a bigspaghetti potluck with juicy, plump, mouthwatering chanterelles,everybody wandered off by 2:30 or so.

SEPTEMBER 19 FIELD TRIP REPORT Sara Clark

On the September 19 field trip, Lynn Catlin and I identifiedabout 25 species of fungi under broken clouds in a freshlymoistened forest. The great array of Albetrellus dispansusdidn’t quite make up for having no host, no access to thecampground through the padlocked gate, no coffee, no fire, and ashortage of edible fungi. About a dozen adventurous foragersappeared out of the woods between 10:30 AM and 2:00 PM, all of whomwent on to hopefully greener pastures in the latter part of theafternoon. We stayed around until about 4:30 but no one elseappeared. We are hoping for better backup at the next trip, whichis such a wonderful venue for a social and fungal gathering.

MUSHROOM ASTROLOGY Bob Lehman, LAMS

Scorpio (Oct. 23 – Nov. 21): You love the mysteriousnessof mushrooms. You plot your mushroom hunting strategy in advance,taking into account the motives and likely strategies of competingmushroom hunters. While others on a foray engage in small talk, yousneak away from the group to fill your basket from your secretspot. Aries may cover more ground, but you know how to get more outof the ground you cover. You don’t mind Leo’s boastingabout his chanterelles because you know he’ll be proud togive you some. You are willing to endure difficult conditions inorder to find the mushrooms you want. You are fascinated bypoisonous mushrooms.

NAMA DUES ARE DUE  Lorraine Dod

To join or renew membership in the North American MycologicalAssociation, send a check for $17.00 (it’s officially $20,but Society members get a $3 discount) to Lorraine Dod at the PSMSOffice, Center for Urban Horticulture, Box 354115, University ofWashington, Seattle, WA 98195. Get your money to Lorraine byNovember 10 to ensure you will receive all the issues of the NAMAnewsletter, Mycophile.

MUSHROOMS AND WINE Joanne Young

The Seattle chapter of the International Association of Food andWine has invited PSMS to join them for a mushroom hunt, Sunday,October 25th. The location has yet to be determined. On thefollowing Tuesday, October 27, a five-course gourmet mushroomdinner will be cooked and served at Caspar’s Restaurant. Wineby McCray Cellars will be served with every course, includingdessert. The total cost of the dinner, with wine, tax and gratuityis $60 per person. For more information and location, call the PSMSvoice mail at (206) 522-6031 and press "3" when the recordingbegins.

BOOK RECALL  Lorraine Dod

It’s time for our annual book audit. If you have any bookschecked out from the PSMS library, please return them to PSMSLibrarian Lorraine Dod.

ROLLING IN CLOVER Brad Bomanz
Spores Illustrated, Spring, 1998, via Mycelium,April–June 1998

You’re walking along a beautiful lush green carpet ofgrass and suddenly spot a bevy of beautiful primemeadow mushrooms. BEWARE!

All fungi are a product of their environment, and one must becautious of the environment in which edible fungi are collected.Herbicides and pesticides are used in abundance by lawn careprofessionals. The chemical soups concocted by these lawn careprofessionals contain significant amounts of chemicals that aretoxic to humans.

As a general rule, I recommend that when you find any fungi in amanicured lawn area, be it a cemetery, business complex, golfcourse, etc., survey the area to see if there are any broadleafweeds growing. I personally look for clover. The absence of weedsand rough grasses may indicate the use of toxic chemicals,including various dioxins such as 2,4D and 2,4,5T chlordane, orSilvex.

In these suspect areas, I pick fungi only for research purposes,not for consumption.

PSMS IDENTIFIERS ASSIST US FOREST SERVICE JoanneYoung

US Forest Ranger and PSMS member Mick Meuller received a grantto do fungi surveys in the vicinity of spotted owl nests on LakeWenatchee. The grant will cover food and lodging at the TallTimbers Lodge for 15–20 PSMS identifiers. The study takesplace October 16 and 17, 1998.

The primary goals of the study are to (1) conduct a preliminaryinventory of macrofungi species in the Lake Wenatchee RangerDistrict, (2) conduct a survey around spotted owl nests whichtypically reside in late successional forest structure, (3)integrate Forest Service personnel with PSMS members in moreresearch-oriented activities.

It is hoped that the results of the study will help secure fundsto expand the project next year and include more of the PSMSmembership.

IT WAS ALL A MISTAKE

Kelly Cumberland, 23, a fine arts student at Leeds MetropolitanUniversity, left jelly, gelatin, and food coloring in Petri dishesto photograph changes in color and consistency. But scientists atLeeds recognized a deadly Aspergillus species and ordered the culturedestroyed. Cumberland will have to exhibit photographs of themicroorganisms for her MA.

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