Join us for our Don Bryant Memorial Lecture! More details to come.

The meeting will be held on Wednesday 10/21 from 7-9pm at HUUF (24 Fellowship Way, Bayside, CA) & streamed via Zoom. We strongly encourage carpooling! This event is free & open to the public.

7-7:30: Tea & social time, show and tell, (bring your mugs & mushrooms!), and a free raffle for attendees

7:30-7:45: Zoom begins, club business

7:45-9: Featured speaker

Lobster Mushroom Dye Workshop: Peaches & Pinks!

Join Kristen Lucas of Naturally Dyed Designs for a hands-on lobster mushroom dyeing class! You’ll dye and take home two beautiful scarves, one wool and one silk, creating gorgeous peach and pink colors.

Learn how to turn lobster mushrooms into natural dyes while exploring the fun and sometimes finicky process of mushroom dyeing. Lobster mushrooms may be edible, but when you find one that isn’t suitable for eating, don’t toss it out. Dye with it instead! 🍄

Come learn, create, and leave with two unique, naturally dyed scarves of your own.

When: Saturday 10/3/26

Where: Unitarian Fellowship, 24 Fellowship Way, Bayside, CA

Time: 1 pm – 4 pm 

Link to tickets: www.hbmycologicalsociety.org/shop/p/mushroomdyeworkshop26

Join us for our first meeting of the season! More details to come.

The meeting will be held on Wednesday 9/16 from 7-9pm at HUUF (24 Fellowship Way, Bayside, CA) & streamed via Zoom. We strongly encourage carpooling! This event is free & open to the public.

7-7:30: Tea & social time, show and tell, (bring your mugs & mushrooms!), and a free raffle for attendees

7:30-7:45: Zoom begins, club business

7:45-9: Featured speaker

Details will be sent to members in the Spring newsletter.

Details will be sent to members in the Spring newsletter.

Details will be sent to members in the Spring newsletter.

In this class, you will learn the basic process of botanical printing and mushroom dyeing. You will get to dye one scarf with plants and mushrooms. We will be using the "dirty pot" method but with mushrooms in the pot instead of iron and eucalyptus. We will use available plants for botanical printing. 

This workshop will be a beginner/intermediate mushroom dyeing and botanical printing class. 

Kristen Lucas from Naturally Dyed Designs will be teaching the class. She is a natural dyer of 8 years and loves that she can constantly learn new things with plants and mushrooms.

When: Saturday 1/31/26

Where: Unitarian Fellowship, 24 Fellowship Way, Bayside, CA

Time: 1 pm – 5 pm 

SOLD OUT! Become an HBMS member to receive presale tickets for all workshops.

Come learn the skills you need to successfully grow edible mushrooms on hardwood logs! In this workshop, participants will learn about wood selection, mushroom species, inoculation techniques, and how to achieve successful mushroom fruiting. This easy method of mushroom cultivation is a great way to grow nutritious, protein-rich food for you and your family. Whether you are interested in backyard cultivation or market production, this introductory class will get you on your way.

Participants will each take home a shiitake log!

Taught by Levon Durr of Fungaia Farm.

Levon Durr has been a mushroom and veggie farmer for over 30 years. He founded Fungaia Farm in 2011 to bring more fresh culinary and medicinal mushrooms to Humboldt County. Fungaia Farm offers workshops, internships, and consultations on mushroom cultivation. To learn more, check out their website at fungaiafarm.com

When: Saturday 1/24/26

Where: Unitarian Fellowship, 24 Fellowship Way, Bayside, CA

Time: 1 pm – 3 pm 

SOLD OUT! Become an HBMS member to receive presale tickets for all workshops.

Join us for our last meeting of the season! The January meeting will feature the awardee of our HBMS Community Education Scholarship, Monika Richardson, presenting “Comparing the Ectomycorrhizal Fungal Communities of three Pinus Species on California's Far North Coast”.

The meeting will be held on Wednesday 1/21 from 7-9pm at HUUF (24 Fellowship Way, Bayside, CA) & streamed via Zoom. We strongly encourage carpooling! 

7-7:30: Tea & social time, show and tell, (bring your mugs & mushrooms!), and a free raffle for attendees

7:30-7:45: Zoom begins, club business

7:45-9: Featured speaker

Talk Description:

This master's project investigates the communities of ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi associated with three pine species occurring in coastal Humboldt and Mendocino Counties: Bishop pine (Pinus muricata), shore pine (Pinus contorta subsp contorta), and Monterey pine (Pinus radiata). Now in its culmination phase, this research has revealed variation in ECM fungal community composition among the three pine species, and quantified the influences of host species, native range overlap, and geographic distance on the community of ECM fungi present. Additionally, edaphic soils variables across all sites were correlated with patterns in ECM fungal diversity and species richness. From an ecological perspective, this project has identified keystone fungal symbionts that may have not been previously inventoried, and assesses the flexibility of the ECM fungi that participate in symbiotic mutualisms. Ectomycorrhizal fungi are critical components of pinaceous forests, by quantifying the communities of ECM fungi across different pine tree hosts I hope to highlight the importance of biodiversity and the factors influencing the occurrence of fungal symbionts.

Bio:

Monika grew up on the San Francisco Peninsula where she developed a love for the ecosystems of the coastal regions of California. She received her undergraduate degree in Biology at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and has spent 7 years working for various government and nonprofit conservation organizations such as Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Mendocino Land Trust, and Feather River RCD. After years of being obsessed with identifying and looking for mushrooms, Monika decided to enter a master's program at Cal Poly Humboldt in Dr. Terry Henkel's mycology lab to investigate the symbiotic mutualisms between fungi and plants. She is excited to be studying something she finds so fascinating and is happy to be in the beautiful and wet Humboldt county. When not looking for mushrooms, Monika spends her time surfing, co-managing a compost company, and playing music.

Our monthly meetings are free & open to the public. Our speaker series is funded by our Annual Mushroom Fair, which was held last year on 11/23/25 at the Arcata Community Center.

This talk will be streamed via Zoom! Zoom begins at 7:30pm.

Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84351357084?pwd=YHhHQPQ9UOvMf9K9TSTTw98Yya40xq.1

Meeting ID: 843 5135 7084

Passcode: 541623

Our December meeting will feature Dr. Danielle Stevenson, presenting “Mycoremediation from Fires to Superfund Sites”. 

The meeting will be held on Wednesday 12/3 from 7-9pm at HUUF (24 Fellowship Way, Bayside, CA) & streamed via Zoom. We strongly encourage carpooling! 

7-7:30: Tea & social time, show and tell, (bring your mugs & mushrooms!), and a free raffle for attendees

7:30-7:45: Zoom begins, club business

7:45-9: Featured speaker

Talk Description: 

This talk will discuss some principles of mycoremediation and go through several California-based field studies looking at applications of fungal-based bioremediation for cleanup of Superfund sites and fire-contamination-impacted sites.

Speaker Bio:  

Dr. Danielle Stevenson is an environmental toxicologist and mycologist with 15 years of experience developing mycoremediation methods for land and waste. She holds a PhD in Environmental Toxicology from the University of California, Riverside, where her research focused on fungal and plant-based brownfield remediation in LA County. Danielle is Founder & Scientific Director of the Centre for Applied Ecological Remediation, carrying out research, application and workforce development around ecological remediation, and CEO of ReMyco, a public-benefit company advancing bioremediation products and services. She previously served as Head of R&D at Hiro Technologies, leading fungal biotechnology development for plastics, and founded initiatives including D.I.Y. Fungi and Healing City Soils. Danielle also serves on California DTSC’s Equitable Community Revitalization Grant Treatment Technology Council and the Board of CoRenewal. FB/IG: daniellestevenson7 and Danielle Stevenson / D.I.Y. Fungi

Our monthly meetings are free & open to the public. Our speaker series is funded by our Annual Mushroom Fair, which was held this year on 11/23/25 at the Arcata Community Center. 

This talk will be streamed via Zoom! Zoom begins at 7:30pm. 

Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87543127004?pwd=2Dzv1EKYMxeYa0oUZv00tWnfUdYKc9.1 

Meeting ID: 875 4312 7004

Passcode: 631408

Our November meeting will feature Noah Siegel, author of Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast, presenting “Adventures of a Mycohobo”. He will also be speaking at the HBMS Mushroom Fair on 11/23!

The meeting will be held on Wednesday 11/19 from 7-9pm at HUUF (24 Fellowship Way, Bayside, CA) & streamed via Zoom. We strongly encourage carpooling! 

7-7:30: Tea & social time, show and tell, (bring your mugs & mushrooms!), and a free raffle for in-person attendees

7:30-7:45: Zoom begins, club business

7:45-9: Featured speaker

Talk Description:

Ever wonder what mushrooms occur in the jungles of tropical Africa, or the dripping, moss covered Antarctic Beech forests of New Zealand, or across the diverse eco-regions of North America? We will take a photo safari of some of the places I have been working, and highlight my favorite mushrooms and ecosystems.

Bio:

Noah is one of North America’s foremost field mycologists; he has spent over three decades seeking, photographing, identifying, and furthering his knowledge about all aspects of macrofungi. He travels and lectures extensively across America, following the mushrooms from coast to coast.         

Noah was the recipient of the 2022 North American Mycological Association’s Award for Contributions to Amateur Mycology. His primary research interest is on the taxonomy and systematics of fungi.         

He authored, along with Christian Schwarz, Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast, a Comprehensive Guide to the Fungi of Coastal Northern California and Mushrooms of Cascaida, a Comprehensive Guide to Fungi of the Pacific Northwest, as well as A field Guide to the Rare Fungi of California's National Forests. He is currently working on Mushrooms of Alaska, with Steve Trudell and Kate Mohatt.

Our monthly meetings are free & open to the public. Our speaker series is funded by our Annual Mushroom Fair, being held this year on 11/23/25 at the Arcata Community Center. 

This talk will be streamed via Zoom! Zoom begins at 7:30pm. 

Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89163162820?pwd=EsSWnySyaYmJVApwpzeB9GdGr20fsw.1 

Meeting ID: 891 6316 2820

Passcode: 664710

This is a member’s only workshop. Details sent to members in the newsletter.

The October meeting will feature our Don Bryant Memorial lecture with Elle Matthews, presenting:

“Foraging Connection: Community, Culture and Cuisine Through the Lens of Mushrooms”

The meeting will be held on Wednesday, 10/15 from 7-9pm at HUUF (24 Fellowship Way, Bayside, CA) & streamed via Zoom. We strongly encourage carpooling (and getting there early, this will be a popular one!)

• 7:00–7:30: Tea & social time, show and tell (bring your mugs & mushrooms!), and a free raffle for in-person attendees
  

• 7:30–7:45: Zoom begins, club business
  

• 7:45–9:00: Featured speaker
  

Talk Description:
We will be exploring the binding hyphal threads of community, culture and cuisine through the lens of foods that nourish our bodies and souls. Come on a tasting journey through small bites that highlight local ingredients and put wild mushrooms in the spotlight. Experience firsthand the process of those dishes so you can replicate them at home and have the opportunity to purchase one of a kind mushroom products from our guest chef. 

• App: Cypress Grove chevre, spiced apples or persimmons from the farm, candy capsicum marmalade 

• Soup and biscuit: Heirloom tomato and lobster mushroom bisque, biscuit with chanterelle mushroom compound butter 

• Dessert: Candy Cap kabocha squash beignets

Bio:

Elle Matthews lives on a small farm in Northern California with her partner, son and their animals. She is a farmer, and forager and makes products from their forages and the food they grow. She sells these products through her mushroom and wild food company MushLove as well as leading forays and events focused on mushrooms and other wild foods. She is passionate about nature and helping her community and loves connecting the two by inspiring people to become educated about and involved in the natural world around them. You can find Elle on Facebook as Ellle Matthews or follow her on Insta as @elfirefly.

Our monthly meetings are free & open to the public. Our speaker series is funded by our Annual Mushroom Fair, being held this year on 11/23/25 at the Arcata Community Center. 

This talk will be streamed via Zoom! Zoom begins at 7:30pm. 

Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89994136546?pwd=DkOfGKbEVTaFLjyb4dvPg47biiSZlt.1

Meeting ID 899 9413 6546

Passcode 988753

Who Was Don Bryant?

The HBMS October meeting features our annual Don Bryant Memorial Lecture, named in honor of longtime member Donald Bryant. 

Don was a passionate and generous member of HBMS for over three decades. His enthusiasm for mushrooms was infectious, and he loved both learning and sharing his knowledge with others. He gave talks on edible mushrooms, preservation techniques, and fungal ecology, and was always eager to lead field trips to his favorite spots, including the forest behind College of the Redwoods where he worked as a media technician.

Within HBMS, Don volunteered in many roles: Membership Chair, representative to the North American Mycological Association, and our first Media Chair, keeping meetings running smoothly with projectors and later laptops. Above all, he built community through his love of mushrooms, making lasting friendships and inspiring many to deepen their interest in mycology.

After his passing, Don’s family partnered with HBMS to establish the Don Bryant Memorial Lecture Series. Each year’s lecture is shaped in the spirit of Don’s fascination with big, showy, and often edible mushrooms, ensuring the program reflects the joy and curiosity he brought to the world of fungi. With his family’s support, this series continues to honor Don’s memory while inspiring future generations of mushroom enthusiasts.

Details sent to members in the newsletter.

Our September meeting will feature the awardee of our 2025 Fungal Research Stipend, Mikhael Crystallah-Selk (SOMA board member and taxonomist), presenting:

“Ecology of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest: Interrelationships between Flora, Fauna, and Fungi”

The meeting will be held on Wednesday, 9/17 from 7-9pm at HUUF (24 Fellowship Way, Bayside, CA) & streamed via Zoom. We strongly encourage carpooling!

• 7:00–7:30: Tea & social time, show and tell (bring your mugs & mushrooms!), and a free raffle for in-person attendees
  
  

• 7:30–7:45: Zoom begins, club business
  
  

• 7:45–9:00: Featured speaker
  
  

Talk Description:
How plants, animals, and fungi interact with one another to form the largest forest in California. Having found himself out of work this summer due to health issues, Mikhael chose to spend a month and a half in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. While there, he studied everything he came across, from chipmunks chittering in the trees to mushrooms emerging at higher elevations, discovering the unique biomes and relationships between plants, animals, and fungi. Join him to explore these interconnections across kingdoms of life.

Bio:
Mikhael Crystallah-Selk is a board member and current treasurer of the Sonoma County Mycological Association (SOMA), as well as the club’s taxonomist. He has spent nearly a decade conducting field studies of fungal populations. As the recipient of HBMS’s 2025 Fungal Research Stipend, Mikhael is sharing his recent work in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest with our community as part of our mission to support and celebrate research in the field of mycology.

Our monthly meetings are free & open to the public. Our speaker series is funded by our Annual Mushroom Fair, being held this year on 11/23/25 at the Arcata Community Center. 

This talk will be streamed via Zoom! Zoom begins at 7:30pm. 

Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81827355729?pwd=kw1U4SFNLSK06sViG2YgzCB6FQgbbS.1

Meeting ID: 818 2735 5729

Passcode: 525862

Info on the potluck will be sent in the April newsletter.

This class will teach the basics of dyeing Fabric with mushrooms! We will study 2 or more mushrooms and create 4 or more colors with these mushrooms, learning about PH, mordants and more! You will get 2 silk scarves to play with and  you will get to choose what colors to dye them with. Participants can also bring 1 small protein fiber item from home to dye in the exhaust baths (ie. wool, silk, ect.). Taught by Kristen Lucas of @naturally_dyed

This will be a fun class for all ages 12 and up.

Kristen Lucas has been an avid amateur mushroom hunter for 18 years and when learning about natural dyeing 7 years ago she found a way to incorporate her love of foraging and natural dyeing. Often you will find her and her husband out hunting for mushrooms; Kristen's bag full of dyeing mushrooms and her partners with edibles. Come join her for this fun and colorful workshop!

When: 1/25/25

Where: Unitarian Fellowship, 24 Fellowship Way, Bayside, CA

Time: 1 pm – 5 pm 

Price: $45 members - $50 public

Tickets: https://www.hbmycologicalsociety.org/shop/p/dye-workshop-25

Space is limited and preregistration is required.

Join us for our last meeting of the season! The January meeting will feature the awardee of our HBMS Community Education Scholarship, Amelia Francis, presenting “The Devil’s Tooth: Unraveling the Mysteries of Hydnellum peckii” 🍄🩸

The meeting will be held on Wednesday 1/15 from 7-9pm at HUUF (24 Fellowship Way, Bayside, CA) & streamed via Zoom. We strongly encourage carpooling! 

7-7:30: Tea & social time, show and tell, (bring your mugs & mushrooms!), and a free raffle for attendees

7:30-7:45: Zoom begins, club business

7:45-9: Featured speaker

Talk Description:

This presentation delves into the unique traits of Hydnellum peckii, also known as the Devil’s Tooth. Topics include its fruiting body anatomy—stipe, cap, guttation, toothed hymenophore, confluence, hyphal sheath, and pigmentation (atromentic acid)—as well as its mycelium characteristics, ecological preferences, and potential medicinal properties. The phenomenon of fungal guttation will be a major focus, exploring theories behind why

fungi excrete liquid droplets. If time allows, additional species in the Hydnellum genus, such as H. cyanopodium (blue foot), H. fuscoindicum (violet hedgehog), and H. caeruleum (blue spine), will also be discussed.

Bio:

Amelia Francis is a student at Cal Poly Humboldt with a keen interest in fungi and plants. Her independent research on the Hydnellum genus, particularly Hydnellum peckii, reflects her dedication to exploring the natural world. Outside of her academic pursuits, Amelia runs Barn Owl Bakery (@barnowlbakerybyamelia) from her home, balancing entrepreneurial efforts with her studies. Amelia is committed to deepening her knowledge of fungi and sharing her discoveries with others.

As always, our monthly meetings are free & open to the public. 

This talk will be streamed via Zoom! Zoom begins at 7:30pm.

Link:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88682574254?pwd=MWA9up77EHn0bWwGpNDGO6aiplFL6B.1

Meeting ID: 886 8257 4254

Passcode: 547481

RSVP to our Facebook event (it helps get the word out!): https://www.facebook.com/events/548074284294226/

In this class we will learn to paint like Bob Ross but add a few mushrooms to our scenes. Because after all, they grow wherever they want to! We will use different brushes and tools and all materials will be provided. And of course you'll be able to take your masterpiece home for you to enjoy! We will all paint a similar scene, but because we mix paints and make new colors, everyone's painting will be unique in their own ways! Taught by Meg Altman of Creative Hands707.

Bio:

My name is Meg and I am an artist of many mediums. I grew up watching Bob and learning to paint with him, and I wanted to share that with my community! Painting is so fun, relaxing, and enjoyable, there are no mistakes here, just happy little accidents as Bob would say! I am also the creator behind Creative Hands707 where I enjoy creating wearable creations out of polymer clay and also create 100% beeswax candles.

When: 1/11/25

Where: Unitarian Fellowship, 24 Fellowship Way, Bayside, CA

Time: 1 pm – 3 pm

Price: $30 members - $35 public

Tickets: https://www.hbmycologicalsociety.org/shop/p/paint-workshop-25

Grow Your Own Oyster Mushrooms with Fungaia Farm

Come learn the methods of growing your own fresh oyster mushrooms. This hands-on class will cover easy and simple methods of oyster mushroom cultivation from start to finish. This delicious, easy to grow mushroom is a great introduction into mushroom cultivation.

Each participant will make their own oyster kits to take home and grow!  

Taught by Levon Durr, fungus enthusiast and owner of Fungaia Farm.

When: 12/7
Where: HUUF (24 Fellowship Way, Bayside)
Time: 12 pm – 2 pm
Price: $40 members - $45 public

Space is limited and preregistration is required.

Our December meeting will feature Andrew Claassen, presenting “When Water is Scarce: The Niche Fungi of Springs, Seeps, Meadows, and Bogs”.

The meeting will be held on 12/4 from 7-9pm at the Humboldt Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (24 Fellowship Way, Bayside, CA) & streamed via Zoom.

7-7:30: Social time, show and tell (bring your mugs & mushrooms!), and a raffle

7:30-7:45: Zoom begins, club business

7:45-9: Featured speaker

Talk Description:

In this talk we will be covering some of the fungi in California unique to water dense habitats. Because some of these fungi require specific warmer temperatures during the summer months as well as high concentrations of water and other plant life, seeking them in the summertime can offer that dopamine hit we miss when it isn't peak season. As well as living in some very remote habitats, there is often an opportunity to come across something not usually observed and sometimes even undescribed to science.

Speaker Bio:

Andrew Claassen is a mycologist and naturalist based in California. He studied Forest Sciences at Cal Poly Humboldt and is currently continuing his studies at Shasta College. Claassen is actively involved in observing, studying, and logging mycoflora in the region, and he works as a citizen/consultant mycologist for the North American Fungal Diversity Survey and Shasta Spore n' Spawn.

This talk will be streamed via Zoom! Zoom begins at 7:30pm. 

Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81352564072?pwd=zXyMuas8HlCQvYBFwaH9BL3EHiqzV0.1

Meeting ID: 813 5256 4072

Passcode: 523655

RSVP to our Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1047185509947414/

Led by Mike Paquet. Members will be sent details in the newsletter.

Our November meeting will feature local physician Dr. Bruce Kessler, presenting “Toxic Mushrooms”. He will also be at the HBMS Mushroom Fair on 11/24 at the toxic mushroom table!

The meeting will be held on 11/20 from 7-9pm at the Humboldt Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (24 Fellowship Way, Bayside, CA) & streamed via Zoom. 

7-7:30: Social time, show and tell (bring your mugs & mushrooms!), and a raffle

7:30-7:45: Zoom begins, club business

7:45-9: Featured speaker

Talk Description: 

Join us for an important discussion on mushroom toxicology with seasoned physician Dr. Bruce Kessler, who has been an active member of HBMS since its founding in 1978. This talk will explore the dangers of toxic mushrooms, including recent developments in Humboldt County, where the deadly Amanita phalloides, or 'Death Angel,' has been identified. Drawing on decades of experience, Dr. Kessler will provide vital information to help ensure that your mushroom foraging adventures remain safe. 

Speaker Bio: 

I have been a member of HBMS since it was founded in 1978 when Dr. David Largernt, our Scientific Advisor, learned that I am a physician. He asked me to become the unofficial mushroom "toxicologist" for our club. The most recent talk that I gave to the club on mushroom poisoning was in 2020. At that time I felt comfortable reassuring everyone that Amanita phalloides, the "Death Angel" had never been found in Humboldt County. Sadly, that is no longer the case, since it was identified here in 2022 and again last year. I thought that it would be timely to review mushroom toxicology with club members so that I do not have to meet any of you professionally.

He would never mention it, but check out this article for more on Dr. Kessler. We are truly fortunate to have him in our community!

This talk will be streamed via Zoom! Zoom begins at 7:30pm. 

Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86283725683?pwd=t9DfIJAWu7jU0xXGArBFWhcuu1CuEx.1

Meeting ID: 862 8372 5683

Passcode: 385181

RSVP to our Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/477499635283519/

Led by Scott LaChance. Members will be sent details in the newsletter.

In partnership with the Humboldt Botanical Garden Science and Education Seminar Series, former HBMS president Joann Olson will present "Mushrooms of Humboldt." Following the presentation, former HBMS president Maria Morrow will lead a mushroom walk.

Location: College of the Redwoods, Humanities Building, Lecture Hall, Room 112

Time: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM, with the mushroom walk to follow.

Details will be sent to members via newsletter. Tickets will be made available to the public if there are leftover.

Led by Scott Davison. Members will be sent details in the newsletter.

Our October meeting will feature this year’s Don Bryant Memorial Lecture recipient, Eva Gordon. Eva will be presenting “Animal Mycophiles (Critters That Hunt, Farm, Self-Medicate and Get High on Fungi)”.

The meeting will be held on 10/16 from 7-9pm at the Humboldt Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (24 Fellowship Way, Bayside, CA) & streamed via Zoom. 

7-7:30: Social time, show and tell (bring your mugs & mushrooms!), and a raffle

7:30-7:45: Zoom begins, club business

7:45-9: Featured speaker

Talk Description: 

The Animal Mycophiles presentation is based on Eva Gordon's current literary endeavor. While there is an abundance of studies and books delving into the intriguing connections between plants/fungi and humans/fungi, the science of animal-fungal relationships and their ecological significance remains relatively unexplored, save for a few academic research papers. Eva aims to shine a light on this hidden world of mutualism between animals and fungi. 

During the presentation, Eva will delve into three fascinating aspects: Zoochory, Mycophagy, and Fungiculture. Through captivating examples, she will illustrate the symbiotic nature of these relationships, highlighting representative taxa from both invertebrates and vertebrates—the two major groups within the Kingdom Animalia.

Join Eva on an illuminating journey as she uncovers the intricate web of interactions between animals and fungi. From animals unwittingly transporting fungi to their desired destinations (Zoochory), to the consumption of fungi as a vital part of an animal’s diet (Mycophagy), and even the fascinating cultivation of fungi by animals (Fungiculture), this presentation will reveal the marvels of animal fungal mutualism. Prepare to expand your understanding of the natural world and discover the ecological importance of these captivating relationships.

Speaker Bio: 

Eva Gordon, a science educator, taught multiple subjects for twenty years including AP Biology, Anatomy/Physiology, Chemistry, and Environmental Science. She helped introduce Biotechnology to the SFUSD and San Mateo County School Districts. She has also taught STEM programs from elementary to high school level. Before moving to Washington State, Eva was a North Texas Master Naturalist and the Vice President of the North Texas Mycological Association. Eva is presently Education Co- Chair for the North American Mycological Association, and is working on a non-fiction book titled Animal Mycophiles.

This talk will be streamed via Zoom! Zoom begins at 7:30pm.

Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87147862247?pwd=BQi9zAMlbUsVYDyhwdvXJnJgNTEXhv.1

Meeting ID: 871 4786 2247

Passcode: 515667

RSVP to our Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/882375737177156/