LONG ISLAND MYCOLOGICAL CLUB http://limyco.org VOLUME 15, NUMBER 3, AUTUMN, 2007 MUSHROOM DAY LIMC’S NEW SCIENCE ADVISOR 2007 We are very pleased to announce that Benjamin Wolfe, PhD PLANTING FIELDS candidate, has graciously accepted the post of science adviser to the ARBORETUM Long Island Mycological Club. As most of you know, Benjamin is currently researching the status of Amanita phalloides in the United OCT. 14, 1-4 P.M. States, and our club has been assist- ing him in the hunt for specimens of Mushroom Day 2006 that species, as well as for Amanitas of section Lepidella, for another aspect of his research at the Harvard Univer- sity Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. After graduat- ing magna cum laude from Cornell University in 2003 with a B.S. (honors) in Natural Resources/Plant Science, he attended the Uni- versity of Guelph, Ontario, receiving a M.Sc. in 2005. His thesis was entitled “Structural and functional spatial heterogeneity of arbuscu- photo© Bruce Eberle lar mycorrhizal fungi.” Among his many awards and scholarships, he has received All LIMC members are invited two from the Mycological Society of America: the Forest Fungal to join us at our annual public mush- Ecology Research Award in 2004, and the Clark T. Rogerson Stu- room exhibit at Planting Fields Arbo- dent Research Award in 2007. Other awards include a National Sci- retum, Oyster Bay. The public dis- ence Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and John L. Harper play will run from 1 to 4 PM, but if Young Investigator’s Prize from the Journal of Ecology. you wish to assist, arrive around Despite his age, he has already published extensively in 12 noon to help in setting up the many professional journals, including Mycorrhiza; Journal of Ecol- exhibit. Remember that the entrance ogy; PloS Biology; Ecology Letters; BioScience; and Nature, on topics fee now applies to LIMC members such as mycorrhizal fungi and soil communities to invasive plant also. Bring any interesting specimens ecology. He was one of the authors of the study demonstrating the that you find for exhibition and identi- deleterious effects of the invasive wild garlic mustard on native fication. (You do not need to identify it seedlings, which received wide media attention, and which we fea- yourself.) Spread the word, and let tured in a previous edition of the LI Sporeprint (Summer,’06). Addi- everyone you know who has even a tionally, he has been a reviewer for a number of peer reviewed pub- passing interest in mushrooms or lications, such as Ecology Letters, Ecological Entomology, New Phy- natural history of this event. tologist, Plant & Soil, and Ecology. Our annual meeting will again His photographs of plants and fungi have appeared in The be held at our end-of-the-season New York Times, Harvard Magazine, The Harvard University Ga- luncheon, in order to assure a voting zette, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation website, NPR’s All quorum. Things Considered website, PLoS Biology, and on the cover of the (Continued on page 7) 2 LI SPOREPRINT PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE This has been the worst August-September up. If conditions don’t improve, we may have to can- season that I can remember since I became a mem- cel. This would be a first! Please watch your email ber of this club 15 years ago. Everything is dry and or call Joel and me to see what’s happening. fruiting has been rare. Other areas have similar Now it is time to think about our annual results so it is not just Long Island. luncheon. We are looking at a lot of places and there There is some good/ bad news though. Honey is still time to suggest a new venue. Just call or mushrooms are up and running, producing beauti- email me at : owls 2@ optonline.net with any new ful tight buttons and caps with hardly any bugs. place you think may work. Again, as last year, it What a bounty for us. Unfortunately, it comes at a will be held on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. If price: dead oaks. So if you want to collect, look for the weather stays warm into December, we may areas of dead oaks and look for honeys at their continue into that month that in coming years. bases or nearby. Lastly, be aware that it is tick time. Some of Also, once in awhile a juicy chicken mush- us have been attacked by larval ticks. You must use room can be found. In August, Laetiporus cinncina- a hand lens to see and remove them. There are chig- tus was found at the base of oaks and then L. sul- gers around which also bite. They both itch like phureus appeared. We only found a few but they hell, especially at night. Some of us are really aller- were choice. A few Grifola frondosa have been seen, gic to these creatures and must see a doctor. (I still but for the most part they have been small and have scars from last year.) Be careful: tuck pants dried out. I’m not giving up yet- Fall is just starting. into socks or wear boots and use spray. It doesn’t Mushroom Day at Planting Fields is coming always work so you must be vigilant. EDITOR’S NOTE What Roger Tory Peterson said about bird- all master at one level or another. It is for this rea- ing, that it was more than simply a pastime, that it son that our club cooperates with researchers who could be an art, a sport, an esthetic, a passion, and a are expanding our knowledge and perfecting the science applies equally to the pursuit of mushrooms. study of mushrooms, and whose request for assis- It can be enjoyed on many different levels, and can tance we feature as part of this newsletter. We also accommodate both gastronomes and taxonomists. participate in the inventorying of the species of par- Many of us consider ourselves to have a foot in each ticular sites. Amateur efforts have aided immeasura- camp. We enjoy the bounty of fragrant delicacies as bly in documenting the species ranges and distribu- much as the vision of pleasing forms or the surprise tion of many different taxa, from birds to butterflies of a newly seen species. But the keystone for all to flowers, and it is incumbent on us to do our small these things is the science behind it, which we must part in the field of fungi. MATERIAL FOR THE WINTER, 2007 EDITION SHOULD REACH THE EDITOR BY NOVEMBER 30TH (Submissions should preferably be typed or submitted in Rich Text Format on PC floppy disk or by e-mail) LI Sporeprint is published quarterly. Material herein may be freely copied by any non-profit organization if appropriate acknowledgements are made. LONG ISLAND MYCOLOGICAL CLUB President:Peggy Horman Sporeprint Editor: Joel Horman Treasurer & Membership Secretary: Peggy Horman 11Ramblewood Rd., Ridge, NY 11961 (631) 744-4965 e-mail: [email protected] Tel: (631) 744-4965 Recording Secretary: Monique Dussault e-mail: [email protected] Foray Chairman: Jacques Brochard Editorial Ass’t: Peggy Horman Species Recorder: Bruce Eberle Board Members: Rita Blinderman, Webmaster: Dale Robins Cathy Cresko, Tony Mish, Lyle Peters Science Adviser: Benjamin Wolfe, PhD candidate Leonard Schecter. AUTUMN, 2007 3 13th SAMUEL RISTICH NORTHEAST- ERN MYCOLOGICAL FORAY or MAINE REDUX photo©Bruce Eberle Taxonomists in contemplation at the tables. http://eticomm.net/~ret/amanita/key.dir/ photo©Bruce Eberle njpblist.html Foraging sites varied from boreal Northern Gary Lincoff discourses at the collection roundup. Spruce forests to mixed hardwood and and conifer From August 9-12 several hundred avid (hemlocks & pines) forest, bogs, and upland areas mushroomers descended upon the University of with oak, birch and beech as well as conifers. As Maine in Orono to attend this year’s NEMF Foray, usual, not everything that was collected made it to among them seven members of LIMC, namely, the final collection display, and the lack of air condi- Jacques Brochard, Roger Eklund, Bruce Eberle, tioning in the collection hall did not enhance the lon- Aaron Norarevian, and Piroska Szabo and Peggy & gevity of the specimens. Although more informal me. For Bruce and Roger, this was their first re- than the NAMA forays, amateurs are still not en- gional foray, and they took to it like fungi to rain, of couraged in the manner that I have been informed which, alas, there was a negative balance, this re- they are in the British associations. As I mentioned gion having received less than the average amount, above, foragers had to scrutinize closely to collect, in contrast to the NYC area. This resulted in a low with the result that many of the finds verged on the count of species collected, with foragers peering un- microscopic or the frequently ignored. As a result, der logs and in damp corners in order to glean some the nightly awards for interesting finds reflected specimens. this, with such obscure organisms as Pseu- Nevertheless, while nature remained obdu- domerulius, Sebacina and Henningomyces being sin- rate, we made the most of what was available, tak- gled out. More familiar species that ing advantage of lectures, workshops and socials, garnered awards were Pleurotus which filled the days and made the time speed by. dryinus, Cordyceps militaris, and One very welcome innovation consisted of scheduling Amanita aureosolens, the latter ap- the talks sequentially, making it possible to proceed parently not yet found outside of from one lecture to another without missing any. Maine. Neither Polyozellus multi- Previous forays scheduled these side by side, with plex nor Amanita ristichii, the des- consequent conflict resulting.