OMS Board Member Bob Antibus Honored

Congratulations to OMS Board Member Bob Antibus, who now has a trail access named after him by the Johnny Appleseed Metro Park District, for whom Bob has served as Park Commissioner for the last 27 years! This impressive sign is in a small park that provides an access point to the Miami-Erie Canal Towpath Trail. (The park will eventually have trails but is now wooded.) If you happen to be biking or walking in the Lima, OH area you can find it at 12335 Zion Church Rd, roughly midway between Spencerville and Delphos.

An honor much deserved! Isn’t it great to see Bob and Joanne’s lovely faces in this time of separation?

New Book Recommendation – Appalachian Mushrooms: A Field Guide

We get occasional inquiries on recommended field guides which cover our region. Walt Sturgeon has published a new field guide through Ohio University Press which I highly recommend. Here is a link to a recent review from well known nature photographer Ian Adams. – Jerry Pepera

http://ianadamsphotography.com/news/appalachian-mushrooms-a-field-guide-walter-e-sturgeon/

Rising Valley Mini-foray

See below for some pictures from the Cinco De Mayo Mini-foray in Richfield.

Rising Valley #1

Gyromitra brunnea

Gyromitra brunnea

Rising Valley #2

Morchella punctipes

Rising Valley #3

2018 OMS Fall Foray – Hiram College

2018 OMS Fall Foray

Dates: Oct 6-7, 2018

We look forward to returning to the rich and unique, 500-acre James H. Barrow Field Station of Hiram College, located in Portage County, for our annual Fall Foray.  This living laboratory supports over 200 acres of mature Beech-Maple forest, along with other forest types and riparian habitats.

Our ongoing partnership with Hiram College has been very beneficial.  It could even be considered symbiotic if that wasn’t such a corny mycological analogy!  Seriously, engaging with Hiram students on this foray injects a great energy into the event, and the college faculty and staff have been wonderful hosts.  The Field Station is just three miles away from the Hiram College campus.

In addition, we’ve secured permission at a private property, Camp Asbury, for our Sunday foray.  Composed of a variety of mature and nurtured habitats, Camp Asbury always yields interesting and many different finds from those at the Field Station, which is only four miles away.

We are very fortunate to have author and outstanding field mycologist Walt Sturgeon as this foray’s mycologist and presenter.  His illustrated program about “Edible Mushrooms on Wood” will be of interest to everyone.  Winning national awards for his mushroom photography, Walt takes care in putting together presentations that are beautiful to look at, but also richly document the key features and habitats of the mushrooms that are included.

The Kennedy Observation Building at the Field Station will be our headquarters for this foray on Saturday.  It can be accessed at 11305 Wheeler Road in Garrettsville, OH  44231, between State Routes 82 and 305.  To download a map and directions, go to http://www.hiram.edu/academics/support-services/field-station/map-and-directions/

On Sunday we will commute by car caravan over to Camp Asbury to meet with camp director, ecologist, and foray guide, Rev. Bill Graham.

Space for those seeking on-site accommodations at the Field Station is very limited.  Advance registration for those wishing to camp onsite is required by contacting foray coordinator Debra Shankland between August 30 – October 3 only.  You can call 440-263-2334 or email dks@clevelandmetroparks.com to register or get additional information.

Schedule of events

Friday, October 5

Limited primitive camping at the Observation Building available beginning at 6:30 p.m.

Saturday, October 6

9 a.m.  Registration and coffee at the Observation Building

9:40 a.m.  Welcome and orientation

10 a.m. – 12N  Morning forays

12:15 – 1 p.m.  Potluck lunch (please see “What to Bring” below)

1:30 – 2 p.m.  Illustrated discussion of “Edible Mushrooms on Wood” by Walt Sturgeon

2:15 – 4:15  Afternoon forays

5:15 – 5:40  Table talk concerning noteworthy collected specimens

6:10 p.m.  Dinner at The Brick in Garrettsville (go to FreddyBurger.com to see the menu)

Sunday, October 7

9 – 10:30 a.m.  Coffee & light breakfast at the Observation Building; review collections

10:30 – ?  Clean up

11:15 a.m. – 1 p.m.  Final foray at Camp Asbury in Hiram

1 – 1:40 p.m.  ID & discussion of finds

2 p.m.  Farewell!

OVERNIGHT ACCOMMODATIONS

Limited, primitive on-site camping at the Observation Building is allowed free of charge on October 5 & 6 only.  There are no developed camping facilities here, so you must be self-sufficient.  There is a single restroom in the Observation Building.  Showers are available for our group at the athletic center on campus.  Contact Debra for more information, or to reserve a spot.

The Hiram Inn (http://www.thehiraminn.com) is right on Hiram’s campus two miles from the Field Station. This beautifully renovated century-and-a-half home is located on the corner of SR 700, SR 82 and SR 305.

Bed and Breakfast accommodations in picturesque Burton include the Red Maple Inn and Goodwin House.  Plan to spend $125+ per night.

Unique and affordable places to stay may be found on airbnb.  Begin your search in Garrettsville, Hiram, and Burton.

WHAT TO BRING

Please know that the Kennedy Observation Building is a learning lab for the Field Station and was not built with banquet facilities nor large groups in mind.  Space will be snug but with everyone’s help and cooperation in changing room setups, we have found it to be adequate.  Thanks in advance for remembering this!  That said, you’ll find these supplies very helpful to bring along:

• Refillable water bottle
• Reusable coffee/tea mug
• Food/drink to share at the potluck; please make sure it’s ready to serve–there is just one dorm-size refrigerator and one sink, but there are plenty of electric outlets available.
• Utensils and knives needed to serve your potluck item; cooler if necessary.
• Cash for a donation (Forays are free, but your generosity buys coffee, paper products, nametags, goodwill for our hosting institutions, speaker expenses, and more. Thank you!)
• Basket (paper bag can do in a pinch)
• Sharp knife
• Mushroom field guide(s)
• Notepad and pencil/pen
• Magnifier
• Camera
• Hat, rain gear, change of shoes/boots
• Compass
• Whistle

2018 Summer Foray at Zaleski ODNR Complex – Updated Info

Summer Foray 2018 at Zaleski ODNR Complex

Dates:  July 14-15, 2018
Location:  Zaleski ODNR Complex in Vinton County; 29371 Wheelabout Rd, McArthur OH 45651
Foray Organizer:  Martha Bishop, bishopm@ohio.edu (740) 593-4552

Please join us for our Summer Foray in the beautiful and diverse forests of southeastern Ohio.  We will again meet at the recently renovated Zaleski ODNR Complex, 29371 Wheelabout Road, McArthur, Ohio 45651.

We will feature nationally known mycologists Walt Sturgeon and John Plischke, III.  Walt will serve as chief identifier for the foray and John will present our featured talk:  Boletes of the Northeast and Beyond.  Both Walt and John are nationally recognized as expert identifiers of fungi, and both have won numerous awards for their fungal photographs. 

John Plischke, III is the author of Good Mushroom Bad Mushroom: Who’s toxic, Where to find them, and how to enjoy them safely, and Morel Mushrooms and Their Poisonous Look-alikes.  John is a founding member of the Western Pennsylvania Mushroom Club, and serves as Chair of the Photography Committee for the North American Mycological Association.

Walt Sturgeon has authored or co-authored and provided photographs for several popular mushroom books including Mushrooms of Ohio, Waxcap Mushrooms of Eastern North America, Mushrooms and Other Fungi of the West Virginia High Country, and has recently published Mushrooms of the Northeast with Teresa Marrone.  Walt serves as Awards Committee Chair for the North American Mycological Association.

July 14 (Saturday)

8:30-9:30 am.  Meet at Zaleski ODNR Complex for registration and coffee.  Please bring a reusable cup and a cash donation to cover costs of coffee, rolls, etc.

10:00 am. Forays will begin.  We will carpool to several different sites in the local hills.  Please bring hiking gear, mushroom basket, small pocket knife, water bottle, and whistle.

12:15 p.m.  We will have a potluck lunch, so please bring something to share.  Please bring your own iced cooler for items that require refrigeration, and a crockpot for items that must stay hot.  A small refrigerator, stove, microwave and electric outlets are available, however, please know that you will be responsible for all preparation and clean-up of your contribution.

Please bring your dish ready to serve with a label and ingredient list, and serving utensils.  Any wild mushrooms for consumption must be verified by expert collectors.  Please do not bring any home-canned foods.

1:45 p.m.   John Plischke, III will present:  Boletes of the Northeast and Beyond.  

John says:   “Boletes can be popular sought after mushrooms.”  He will discuss places to look for boletes, and the types of trees that they are found under.  He will also talk about bolete edibility, and bolete seasons, giving a few secret hunting tips, resourced to help with ID.

2:45 Afternoon forays depart from Zaleski ODNR complex.

5:30 p.m.  Table talk with explanation of the day’s collections.

6:30 p.m.  Dinner at The Lodge at Lake Hope.  http://lakehopelodge.com/directions/

See menus on their website:  http://lakehopelodge.com/menunew

Please RSVP to bishopm@ohio.edu or (740) 593-4552 if you plan to be here for dinner so that we can reserve adequate space. On Saturday morning we will have a final count for our reservation

July 15 (Sunday)

9:00 am.  Coffee and review of collected fungi.  Please bring a reusable cup and a cash donation to cover costs of coffee, rolls, etc.

Clean up and listing of collections.  Please help out if possible.

11:30 a.m.  Sunday foray.

Accommodations:

Reserve your cabin or campsite at nearby Lake Hope State Park NOW!

1-866-644-6727 or http://parks.ohiodnr.gov/lakehope

Reservations will fill quickly.

Area hotels and other lodging for Athens, Ohio are listed at:   http://athensohio.com/category/wheretostay/

Please print out your driving directions in advance.  There is usually internet connectivity at the foray site, but connectivity may be intermittent in surrounding areas.

Check http://www.ohgo.com/dashboard/se-ohio for road conditions and flooding.  Please be aware that part of State Route 56 is closed between Athens and State Route 278 until at least July 13 for road construction.  You should be able to check the link above to determine whether the road will still be closed on the 14^th.  There are alternative routes.

Here is a pdf copy of this announcement:

OMS Summer Foray 2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cool autumn mushroom pics!

Enjoy these great photos contributed by Alicia Marie Beattie!  Thank you Alicia!

The Little Blue

By Walt Sturgeon

Mycena subcaerulea by Walt Sturgeon

Blue mushrooms are always a treat for the eyes and a pleasure to find. Perhaps the most famous is the Indigo Milk Mushroom, Lactarius indigo. Its deep blue and silver colorations are eye catching and as a bonus, it is edible. In the poroid fungi, Neoalbatrellus caeruleoporus has grayish blue caps. Terana caerulea is a dark blue crust fungus. Some Cortinarius have blue tones as well. Note the names all refer to the colors. Caerulea is blue in Latin and indigo is a shade of blue.

Mycena subcaerulea by Walt Sturgeon

The Little Blue is just that, a small blue mushroom. Its name is Mycena subcaerulea which I interpret as meaning almost blue. This is appropriate for this quickly fading mushroom. It is often overlooked or passed over because of its small size and colors at maturity and as being just another unidentifiable Mycena. In Eastern North America it fruits for a few weeks right after the morel season and then again in late summer. In Ohio it is most commonly observed in June.

Mycena subcaerulea by Walt Sturgeon

Look on decaying logs of broadleaf trees. Oak logs are a favored host. Its caps are about 2 cm. or less in width. When first emerging the buttons are a rich, blue color sometimes spectacularly set off by an aqua margin. In age the viscid caps fade to gray, greenish or brownish often with bluish tinted margins. The gills are white. The stem is powdery dusted and at its base look for bluish mycelium. Photographers hope to find this mushroom when the caps are still mostly blue. It is a tiny splash of color in the late spring woods.

Mycena subcaerulea by Walt Sturgeon

It’s a brand new year!

By Debra Shankland

It’s a brand new year, and it’s possible that you’ve recently taken stock and perhaps decided to do some things differently.

Maybe you’ve resolved to learn a new skill, or sharpen an old one.  Getting more exercise sure wouldn’t hurt.  Maybe you’d like to spend more time with your family, or help your kids to find healthy ways to disconnect from their devices.  Maybe you’d like to meet some new friends.

Joining the Ohio Mushroom Society now can help you meet all of these goals, for just $15 a year.  A full year’s worth of benefits include:

• Six issues of the Mushroom Log, the OMS newsletter
• Receive advance notice of and participate in your choice of six – ten forays, including both major, multi-day forays
• Participate in the Annual Dick Grimm Memorial Banquet
• Take advantage of many learning opportunities with experts in identification, cultivation, and more
• Receive a discount on membership in the North American Mycological Association

The Ohio Mushroom Society is the place for anyone to exercise their interest in mushrooms, whether those interests include identification, taxonomy, folklore, cultivation, cookery, crafts, photography, ecology, natural medicines, or just spending time in nature.  Beginners and experts are both welcome.

Questions?  Feel free to contact us!  Check the board members page to learn how.

Dick Grimm Memorial Banquet

By Debra Shankland

The Dick Grimm Memorial Banquet was held at the Mediterranean on 33 restaurant in Lancaster on Saturday, November 7 this year.  Twenty-five members gathered to reconnect and share stories before winter puts a temporary stop to foray activity.  Everyone was in good spirits, coming from all over the state to attend.

Following a tasty meal of freshly-prepared Greek, Mediterranean and Continental fare, Debra Shankland took a moment to recall Dick Grimm’s many contributions to our club and mycological study, and introduced our special guest for the evening, Dr. Shannon Nix of Clarion University.

Dr. Shannon Nix of Clarion University

After driving down from Clarion, PA, Dr. Nix delivered an excellent presentation on mushroom spore dispersal aptly titled, ‘The Great Escape’.  The visuals were stunning, and perfectly illustrated her discussion.  While the primary difference between Ascomycetes and Basidiomycetes is in how they produce spores, how those minute reproductive spheres travel may be active or passive.  Animal vectors, mushrooms creating their own small-scale “wind”, funicular cords that lasso nearby vegetation, and the sheer number of spores produced and released by different species were just a few details that made this a fascinating lecture.

Everyone went away with a shroomy door prize, some great, some small, but a wide variety of prizes were available for the choosing.  A major donor of the prizes was Karen Kelly, whom we miss since she has moved to Florida.  We thank everyone who donated prizes, and also Shirley McClelland for organizing the banquet.

It was a lovely evening.  We stayed late and went home smiling!

Respectfully submitted,
Debra

Fungi will change our world. Again.

By Bryan Lewis

It goes without saying that the biosphere as we know it depends on fungi. For instance, most vascular plants depend on symbiotic relationships with fungi to thrive (Mycorrhiza), and decomposer fungi help produce soil. Through these and other processes, fungi play a central role in life on earth. In a way, fungi already changed the world long ago.

More directly, we’ve learned how to use fungi for our own benefit over the years. That learning process is ongoing, and I’ll highlight a few exciting developments that are happening right now that I believe will fundamentally change our world again.

Of course many of us know and enjoy edible mushrooms, and foraging for mushrooms is an ancient atavistic pleasure. Brewing beer is another pleasurable use of fungi going back to our pre-history. Long ago we learned that some mushrooms have medicinal properties. You may have head of Otzi the ice man, who lived more than 5,000 years ago and was found carrying birch polypore mushrooms carefully threaded along a leather strap. The birch polypore mushroom has antibiotic and styptic properties.

In 1928, Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming returned from vacation to his lab full of petri dishes containing staph bacteria to find one dish contaminated.

A mold (fungus) was in that dish, and the mold was secreting a liquid that the staph bacteria could not survive in. By accident, Fleming made one of the most profoundly beneficial discoveries in the 20th century; that the fungi penicillin produced antibiotic compounds, later made into medicines that would save hundreds of millions of people.

Clearly, we have a deep collective experience of learning how to benefit from fungi. But like so many things today, that ancient and primitive knowledge and experience has been synthesized and industrialized. It’s still beneficial on the whole, but sadly removed from our immediate awareness.

Meanwhile many face serious problems of pollution, lack of clean water, and lack of affordable access to medicine. Here in Ohio we’ve seen toxic algal blooms that stem from agricultural runoff threaten clean water supplies in both lake Erie and the Ohio River. Many in the third world suffer from cholera, typhoid, and other terrible diseases for lack of clean water and access to antibiotics. Plastics that take centuries or longer to decompose are polluting oceans on a planetary scale.

A vanguard of mostly young, enthusiastic and entrepreneurial innovators are using fungi to help address these serious problems. I believe that their efforts, or similar ones, will profoundly improve our world by successfully addressing these problems in the near future.

This summer at the West Virginia annual summer foray we saw Tradd Cotter of Mushroom Mountain give an amazing talk on his current research into low-tech production of narrow-spectrum antibiotics that someday could help third world countries like Haiti get a handle on bacterial disease and water contamination. Despite the cheap, low-tech production methods, Tradd’s lab and research methods are decidedly high-tech and directly inspired by Fleming’s original penicillin research. Mushroom Mountain is really a bio-tech startup!

Tradd and others like Ja Schindler of Fungi for the People and Ty Allchin are refining state of the art methods of mycoremdiation: using fungi to restore or generally clean up habitats. For instance, placing beds of robust species like the wine cap mushroom on the downslope margin of farm fields might be an effective mycofiltration system to prevent excess fertilizer runoff from entering our streams, rivers and lakes. This might be a cheap, natural way to prevent toxic algal blooms.

Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre of Ecovative are pioneering ways to make durable packaging material from fungi. And they’re working on training varieties of fungi to consume agricultural waste. They literally make plastic from garbage. Their materials are already replacing polystyrene and other plastics with natural, decomposable materials that come from and return to the soil.

These are just a few highlights of a long list of amazing ideas and recent innovation centered around fungi. It only takes a few of these ideas to succeed to bring about large positive changes to our world, a world shaped in surprisingly many ways by fungi.