Volume 47:6 November ⁄ December 2006 www.namyco.org Our First Foreign Fungus Foray by Bob and Barbara Sommer Troubled by restrictions on local collecting? Afraid of being arrested and fined? Tired of finding familiar fungi in the same locations every year? Too much competition in nearby woods? If you answered yes to any of these questions, advertisements for Continued on page 2 Digital Photo Contest Winners Inside Walt Sundberg leads a beginner’s foray. Note the film crew on hand to record the event. Photo by B. Bunyard. NAMA Goes to Canada, Returns with Marvelous Tales to Tell! Jasper National Park, Hinton, Alberta, and the warm hospitality of our Edmonton hosts. Wow, what a treat! This year NAMA traveled north to the upper reaches of the Canadian Rockies at the invitation of the Edmonton Mycological Society. The long trip was well worth the effort as the facilities were superb—a forestry training center, comfy quarters, outstanding food (plentiful, very tasty, and very healthy) with a profile of the Jasper area Rockies only 45 miles to the west when we looked out a window or ate D lunch on the outer deck. The weather also cooperated: warm, sunny with D rain before we arrived and again near departure time. It’s a shame that only 140 members attended, as the site, weather, mushrooms, and programs were well worth the effort to get there. The local coordinators, led by Martin Osis and Melanie Fjoser, and other In this issue: members, planned a field-trip-jammed weekend to a very wide variety of President’s Message ................... 2 habitats from near-prairie to high-elevation habitats, both dry and wet. We also visited peaty bog and fen areas, learning the difference between them, Forays and Announcements ...... 3 and finding many mushrooms and viewing interesting plants along the way. Fungi in the News ....................... 4 We were also educated on the behavior necessary in case we shared space Book Review ................................ 5 with either brown (grizzly) or black bears and/or moose. (A little black bear Digital Photo Winners ............. 6, 7 would visit the campus where we were staying.) Dr. Cathy Cripps of Montana State University, a former student of Dr. GSMS Foray Registration ........... 9 Orson Miller Jr., was Chief Mycologist, assisted by Drs. Markus Thormann, Ink from Spores .........................10 Continued on page 3 Mushroom of the Month ...........12 1The Mycophile, November/December 2006 Moving? P R E S I D E N T ‘ S M E S S A G E Please send your new address, two weeks before you move, to Ann Bornstein The NAMA foray in Hinton, Alberta, was a huge success. The facilities NAMA Membership Secretary were more than adequate, and what can I say about the meals? It’s safe to 336 Lenox Avenue say that I gained a few pounds on this trip! The meals alone were worth the Oakland, CA 94610-4675 registration fees. The mushrooms even cooperated, piling up on the collec- <[email protected]> tion tables in great numbers. I want to thank all of those who helped make Otherwise—you may not be getting the foray such a great success. A special thanks to Martin Osis, Melanie your newsletter for a while. Each issue, several Mycophiles are Fjoser, and all of the other members of the Edmonton Mycological Society returned as undeliverable because of who worked hard to pull this off. Also to Louis Galick, who first approached no forwarding address on file. NAMA NAMA about coming to Alberta. is charged seventy cents for each Foray 2007 in West Virginia promises to be another success. If next returned or forwarded newsletter. year’s rains come as they have this year, the mushrooms should be abun- dant. A walk through the woods this past weekend yielded mushrooms in every direction. NAMA is a 501(c)(3) charitable Several items were discussed at the Trustees’ meeting in Hinton. organization. Contributions to support the scientific and educational activi- Among these was the financial condition of NAMA, which remains stable at ties of the Association are always this time. Our year ended June 30th and resulted in a small profit for the welcome and may be deductible as Organization. The archiving of NAMA materials with the New York Botani- allowed by law. Gifts of any amount cal Gardens is nearly ready for submission. As you have noticed, McIlvainea may be made for special occasions, has returned. Thank you, Britt and Judith. Two new clubs have become affi- such as birthdays, anniversaries, and liated with NAMA, one in Alaska and the other in Mexico. Again this year for memorials. the officers and trustees were challenged to contribute to NAMA’s Endow- Special categories include ment Fund, and, as usual, they rose to the challenge, donating over $1,000 Friend of NAMA: $500–900 of their own money to this cause. Many other issues too numerous to go Benefactor: $1000–4900 Patron: $5000 and up into here were discussed during the meeting, making for a full day. Many thanks need to be bestowed upon the members who serve and participate in Send contributions to Judith McCandless, Treasurer these meetings. If you ever have the opportunity to attend a NAMA Trust- 330 Wildwood Place ees’ meeting, you will see that these are truly dedicated individuals. Louisville, KY40206-2523 <[email protected]> Continued on page 10 The Sommers in Costa Rica, continued from page 1 The Mycophile is published bimonthly by the North American Mycological foreign tours in mycology news- Association, 6615 Tudor Court, letters will begin to look appealing. Gladstone, OR 97027-1032. Some read like recruiting posters for NAMA is a nonprofit corporation; the US Army: Travel to distant contributions may be tax-deductible. places. Find exotic mushrooms. Pick Web site: www.namyco.org them. Isaac Forester, NAMA President Not surprisingly, our first foreign P.O. Box 1107 fungus foray was also the most North Wilkesboro, NC 28659-1107 memorable. Psychologists call this a <[email protected]> “primacy effect,” like a first sighting Judy Roger, Executive Secretary of an Amanita muscaria. You don’t 6615 Tudor Court forget when and where you found it, Gladstone, OR 97027-1032 who was with you, and your emo- <[email protected]> Bob sketched this tional state at seeing firsthand what <[email protected]> Veloporphyrellus has so far been only illustrations in Britt Bunyard, Content Editor pantoleucus while Rolf Singer field guides and drawings on paced impatiently waiting to W184 N12633 Fond du Lac Avenue psychedelic posters paired with Germantown, WI 53022 put this rare specimen into his witch’s brew and frogs. Recognition <[email protected]> dehydrator. was instantaneous. Yes, there really Judith Caulfield, Production Editor are statuesque crimson mushrooms 927 Lansing Drive Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464 Continued on page 11 <[email protected]> The Mycophile, November/December 2006 2 F O R A Y S A N D A N N O U N C E M E N T S Gulf States Mycological collections to our identification table looking forward to seeing more of Society Winter Foray for a free ID! The Fair will be held him at future forays. St. Francisville, Louisiana at the Oakland Museum, Natural December 1–3 History Section, 10th & Oak Streets, And sad news . Oakland, CA. For additional details, For details and registration form see see the MSSF website. Elsie Louise Knighton, 88, passed page 9 in this Mycophile. away Oct. 21, 2006 in Portsmouth, 37th Annual Fungus Fair Great news . Ohio. A native of Portsmouth, she was born April 2, 1918 to the late Oakland, California Welcome Back, Tom Volk! And Joseph Webb and Frances Mae December 2–3 finally, it was great to see Tom Volk Hudson Webb. Elsie was preceded at a recent fall foray sponsored by Each year the Mycological Society of in death by her husband Harry S. my home club, the Wisconsin Myco- San Francisco hosts one or two Knighton on May 26, 1999. logical Society. In spite of the water- mushroom shows (traditionally Harry, founder of NAMA, and logged conditions, Tom was climbing called “fungus fairs”). At the show Elsie were very active members of hills with renewed energy—thanks you will see hundreds of species of NAMA and organized many of the to his new heart—in a way reminis- fungi on display along with exhibits annual Forays. Elsie was secretary cent of a teen-ager. I know I speak on ecology, mycophagy, toxicology, of NAMA for many years. for all of us when I say that I’m and cultivation. Bring your Canada Foray, cont. from page 1 and held a signing. There was a rush to purchase the available copies from University of Alberta (president for her signature. of the Edmonton Society) and The programs and seminars Leonard Hutchison of Lakehead offered the usual wide range of University in Ontario. The fungi topics, this time with special empha- were so numerous that many sis on northern boreal and high knowledgeable attendees also elevation habitats. pitched in to help identify and record I think a lot of the audience was the specimens. Hope Miller was in surprised by the tenacity and abun- attendance, to the delight of all, and dance of fungi in some rather helped with the recordings. austere habitats—above treeline, Hope brought along a large stack near glaciers, and other very non- of Dr. Miller’s and her newest book fungal appearing habitats. The lead- off program Thursday night was about a local Model Forest Project and study by a multitude of resource users, investigating how resources can be extracted without harming the wildlife or upsetting nature’s balances.