The Mycological Society of San Francisco November 2010, Vol. 61:08
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The Mycological Society of San Francisco November 2010, vol. 61:08 November 16th MSSF MycoDigest: What’s all the stink about? Meeting Speaker Jennifer Kerekes tinkhorn fungi are known for their foul-smelling odors and remarkable morphologies. Taxonomically, the stinkhorns are currently placed in the gomphoid-phalloid clade in the newS subclass Phallomycetidae (Hosaka et al, 2006), along with earthstars, cannonball fungi, coral fungi, club fungi, tooth fungi, false truffles and even some gilled fungi and resupinate fungi. This gomphoid-phalloid clade is both morphologically and ecologically diverse. Prior to the recent reclassification, two families of stinkhorns were recognized, the Phallaceae family, consisting of those with unbranched stems and including species of Phallus, Mutinus and Dictyophora, and the Clathraceae family, consisting of those with branched stems and latticed structures, such as Clathrus, Lysurus, Colus and Laterna. However, in Hosaka et al., it appears that both families, Phallaceae and Clathraceae, hold up, Dimitar Bojantchev except that Lysurus is in the family Lysuraceae. The Making of an Informed These three families and three other families, Collector: It’s Fun, and make up the order Science Needs it Too! Phallales. Amateur mycologists and informed Stinkhorn fungi are collectors have had a profound most notable for their impact on mycology through the repugnant odors. years and their role will likely grow This odor, which has in the future. They are particularly been characterized important in aiding and in some as “obnoxious,” cases conducting scientific research “cadaverous,” “putrid” in relatively new mycological and like “rotting grounds like California and North carrion,” helps American where still a great portion attract flies and other of the macromycetes are poorly insects and thus aids studied. Most people are naturally the fungus in spore A Clathrus chrysomycelinus stinkhorn collected in Panama. curious. Sometimes it doesn’t take dispersal. Photo by Jennifer Kerekes. much to unleash that curiosity by empowering people to collect with The insects consume the fungal spores and the gleba, and the spores then germinate once they open eyes towards the unexplored have passed through the digestive system of the insects. A chemical analysis performed on the diversity around them. gelatinous layer of Clathrus eggs revealed it to be rich in potassium, calcium, manganese and iron (Stijve, 1997). It appears that some stinkhorns concentrate manganese and have much higher concentrations of manganese and iron than other fungi. The author suggests that manganese plays a role in the enzymatic breakdown of the gleba and notes a release of carbon dioxide with the formation of the carrion-like odor. The increase in calcium appears to play a role in stabilizing the gelatinous layer that protects the fruiting body during the growth of the egg. Sapromyiophily – the attraction of flies through mimicry of their food and brood sites (Johnson and Jurgens, 2010) - also occurs, and perhaps is most well known, in angiosperms and certain mosses. Amorphophallus, Rafflesia and Stapelia are well known carrion flowers that attract flies and other insects to aid in pollen dispersal. A recent study by Marino, Raguso and Goffinet in 2009 reported that sapromyiophily occurs in some species of mosses in the family Splachnaceae. Flies are attracted to the odors produced by the moss sporophyte and aid in spore dispersal. Continued on page 5 MycoDigest is dedicated to the scientific review of mycological information. Mycena News, November 2010 Page 2 PRESIDENT’S POST CULINARY CORNER SSF had a great October including our second The MSSF Culinary Group has started the new mushrooming season with two great nights of good cheer and conviviality. Our Mculinary group gathering and the arrival of the rains annual potluck featured a long, long, table laden with unique and in the bay area. Members travelling to the north and east greatly appreciated offerings, most with some type of mushroom reported excellent finds including boletes, chanterelles, and included. Our October dinner’s volunteer cooks brought us an unusual array of appetizers, beer, a southwest style salad (thanks, matsutake. Stay tuned to our mailing list to keep current on Sandy Waks), New Mexico style pulled pork with bolete sauce those and other updates as the season progresses. (thanks, George Collier), a squash casserole flavored with candy caps (thanks, Carol Hellums), fragrant jasmine rice (thanks, David Eichorn), ice cream with dulce de leche sauce (thanks, George At the general meeting in October members were again Willis) and, of course, good coffee, thanks to Remo Arancio. wowed by the hospitality committee’s great snacks, including November’s Culinary Group dinner will be French inspired with tempura-fried oyster mushrooms with saffron aioli before Cassoulet the main course. we learned about Lichens in a presentation by Derek Woods Mushrooming has “kept on giving” as my friend, Irma, describes it. Beloved culinary mushrooms have shown up for longer periods of British Columbia. Several members of the Lichen Society of time and in more places than I can remember. Now, with a bit joined us that night for the special topic and a lively round of rain, the “normal” season will soon be underway with many of Q&A followed the presentation. kinds of fall culinary fungi out there in the woods. One of our favorites, the chanterelle, has been getting a lot of attention on the mushroom online forums lately. From a culinary By the time of the last meeting, a number of our forays for standpoint, the posts about blanching chanterelles are particulary the season had been confirmed. Presently there are three in interesting. From the SOMA yahoo groups site Connie Green* November in addition to camp, several in early December writes “A dear friend sent me a post from a wine blog about a chanterelle cooking method. The writer had been taught in a to collect for the fair, two after the fair and one in January French school to blanch the chanterelles in boiling water before with more being as we move in to the new year. sauteing. The instruction was to blanch the whole chanterelles in rapidly boiling water for 20 seconds, remove, drain, pat with a towel, slice if needed, and then proceed to saute them until Some of these look very interesting, see the calendar at caramelized. The result are chanterelles that have actually shed much of their excess moisture during the blanching process. The post-blanching chanterelles saute nicely without bleeding liquid http://mms.mssf.org/members/calendar2.php?org_id=MS into the saute pan.” SF&curMonth=11&curYear=2010 for details and to sign Tom Cruckshank from SOMA followed up with his experiment “I up. took a serving of OR (Oregon) chanties this morning and stripped them as I usually would. I plopped them into boiling water for about 30 seconds. Then I sauteed them in garlic olive oil. I added As you know, Mendocino camp is nearly upon us. If you are a dash of sherry and s & p while sauteeing. Observations: The attending we look forward to seeing you on November the volume of mushrooms appeared to be substantially reduced after 12th. Registration opens at 3 pm and will be staffed most the blanching. However, they did not much further reduce when sauteing. No or little off-watering observed. Chanties browned of the evening. Please remember to bring a water bottle, we and finished cooking a little quickly IMO. They browned nicely. won’t be using the disposable ones this year. MSSF will offer The appeared to be a little more toothsome; a little chewier than logo stainless steel water bottles for sale at camp in case you the longer, off-watering cooking method...I will say the finished product was excellent...I would use more water next time as the forget yours or just want an official MSSF one. boiling stopped with the amount I used when the mushrooms were added; they were just starting to reboil at the 30 seconds where I removed them. Will definitely do again in future. My opinion Following on the heels of Mendocino will be the Fungus is that the blanched, drained and patted dry chanterelles would Fair at the Lawrence Hall of science on December 4th and freeze nicely just like that and could then be used in numerous 5th. We are currently registering much-needed volunteers ways when thawed; this is my next experiment”. for the Fair. You can register from the Web site (link from *Connie Green, an MSSF member, has recently written and had the event on the calendar) or by emailing Stephanie, our published a book with Sarah Scott, The Wild Table; Seasonal Foraged Food and Recipes. It’s bound to be a great addition to volunteer coordinator for the fair at fungusfair@bytewright. your culinary library. Connie is a renowned and well respected com. If you would like to put up posters in your area please forager and purveyor of wild foods. contact us to get posters. I’d appreciate at least a little help Here’s a recipe using chanterelles. David Campbell made this treat from every member hanging up a poster, putting the event for our MSSF summer picnic. The recipe is from Ian Duncan or on a community bulletin board, or talking it up online via Corvallis, Ore. blogs or mailing lists. Mushroom Mousse In closing, here’s wishing you all a great time at Mendocino 1 cup chanterelles, chopped camp and a happy Thanksgiving with some nice edibles 1 small onion, chopped along side your turkey or tofurkey. If I don’t see you in saute in 3 T. butter/olive oil until soft Mendo I’ll look forward to seeing you at our next general Add 1 cup cream, cook until slightly thickened and whirl in a meeting on November 16th.