Notes of a Mycophile

Mushroom life, Golden State.

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Notes of a Mycophile has moved!

You can now find my blog here.

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New Year’s Tidings

Leocarpus fragilis - a slime mold...

Hello, dearest! Forgive my tardiness. The New Year came and went, and I was stuck in Chinatown examining dried stinkhorns, pre-Fukushima Icelandic Kelp, and dodging firecrackers. January? Oh. I must have missed the dawning of that New Year as well.

(Door closes. Suitcases are placed at the door. Tie is loosened, buttons undone. Kisses are exchanged, followed by a warm but tentative embrace. There is a short but intense moment of eye contact. It is implied that all will be explained in due time.)

Yes indeed, there’s a tremendous amount we must catch up on. Just a tremendous amount. Where to begin... Pour me some scotch, will you? Neat, please. Join me, will you?

(glasses clink, small sips) Ahhh... yes.. That settles me in. I’m sure you’ve noticed that mushroom season is nearly over, my dear. The El Niño was strong, but the rains came late and although heavy at times, they amount to a relief at best. Fungi did fruit in Santa Cruz, and some fruited well.

^ Phaeocollybia were seen in Santa Cruz (there are very few documented records of this genus here).

But salvation seems to elude us. Temperatures across this great Golden State have been 10-20 F above average for February. God help us. 

(large sips) Alright, alright. Here’s the long and short of it: Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast is now entirely out of our hands. Noah Siegel and I have turned in the so-called “second pages”, which means that the book goes to print soon. Yes, thank you, cheers! Soon this Six-Year task will be behind us. Many peaks on the horizon beckon.

(glasses clink, “sips” involving serious liquid volume)

^ Shaking off the pall cast by 5 years of book writing about one of the least-well-known eukaryotic groups in the United States...

What else? The Redwood Coast Naturalists mushroom identification courses are done for the season; having fit two beginner’s sessions as well as one intermediate session under my belt. I had an outstanding experience. Who knew there were so many lovely people in this world? See below.

Our Santa Cruz Mycoflora Project made the NPR airwaves. Yes, you can hear the article still. The Fungus Federation renewed their material support for our endeavors. The Norris Center at UC Santa Cruz provides a roof, shelves, and good company. A major grant application is underway. Life is good. The future is bright.

^ Santa Cruz Mycoflora data-gatherers

But there is much to catch you up on that has more to do with the world at large; let us not be provincial.

I have tales to tell you:

Unknown Objects of Extraterrestrial Origin.

I shall be attending a meeting regarding the Fate of Threatened and Endangered Fungi.

Small Worlds

Fungal Extremity and Exceptionality

But first... I must tell you more about where I have been. It was promised to you and now you must have it. The eastern hemisphere. The southern (!) hemisphere. Mainland Malaysia. Borneo. Sulawesi. Bali. Java. In that order, I shall begin next week to cover my times and travels. These places... the creatures... the people... they all left a strong impression on my mind and my heart. To be sure, love, I am still coming to terms.  Cheers to that. (glasses clink, sips taken, fire crackles to life)

Gaze upon this Tokay Gecko (Gekko gecko). They say their names unnervingly while the world is asleep.

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What is the status of North American herbaria making a database so that a researcher, mycologist (or anyone) can type in a species and find where collections of that species are housed?

Check out www.mycoportal.org!

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Do you know of any mushroom cataloging groups in Australia?

Yes, fungimap.org!

[mycobratpack]

Return, Confession

Can you blame me for being unable to resist the allure of this moth? *Door closes*. I’m home. I know my hair is tousled, my backpack is splitting at the seams, I have lipstick and Lepidopteran-scales on my shirt collar. But the wait is over. I’ve been unjustifiably silent. My bravado about long silences in the last post was just that - bravado. I missed you. You missed me. Tears were shed. Beds went cold. Allow me to attempt a rekindling of the flame. What better way than a baring of the soul? A confession? Here goes: ...I’m seeing other organisms. I know, I know! You came here for fungi. But as I intimated long ago, there’s a whole world of creatures out there, and I Iove (almost) all of them. As I get older, my perspective be steady broadenin’. Birds, nudibranchs, marine mammals, fish... I can no longer pretend. I’m Biodiversiphilic. If you hold my hand and keep in mind whatever it was you liked about me as the blogger you first met, I think we can get through this. Here’s what I’ve been up to recently:

I went to Borneo. I found this ^ thing. I don’t know what it is (edit: Danny Newman and Jimmie Veitch suggested Gloiocephala; I think they are correct!). If you promise that you’ll stick with me while we work this out I will show you a bunch more pictures of stuff from Borneo. I will even tell you some naturalist pro-tips about what to do while you’re there. Pinky-swear.

This is an almost-unbelievably scenic coral-reef tableau. I know this might be hard for you to hear, but I spent a fair amount of time underwater this summer. There was just so much to see. It’s beautiful down there. I’ll tell you all about it. Just give me some time. Do you know about Kraits? 

This is a Humpback Whale. It is leaving the ocean and being in the air. Given the number of tons that a Humpy weighs, this is an impressive feat. To be perfectly honest, I’ve been spending a lot of time both under the salt water and on top of it. The Ocean is my mistress, and I am her adoring devotee.

I’m a birder; you probably know this much. It hasn’t rained on the Central Coast of California in months, so I feel pretty comfortable saying that I wasn’t getting my needs met. I look at a lot of birds to fill that space. The one pictured above is a Geothlypis, and it makes a pretty convincing case for being a hybrid Common Yellowthroat x McGillivray’s Warbler hybrid. Is it actually? We will probably never know. Please stay tuned. I’m branching out. I’m learning to love more. And I’m teaching classes: http://www.redwoodcoasttours.com/events/

[mycobratpack]

Return from Diversions

I don’t expect my scribblings here were missed much, and an apology for my long hiatus and silence seems asinine anyway. Moving on.

Since Noah and I submitted our first draft of Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast to our publishers (!!!), I’ve kind of been on physical/mental vacation. My first sally was to Louisiana, where I saw many, many birds I’d never seen before, and even encountered a handful of mushrooms that I also had yet to experience in vivo. 

Most notably, I encountered the glorious little Anthracophyllum lateritium, which encounter I was wholly unprepared for. The red gills that slowly turn charcoal-colored as they age and mustard-yellow caps are really unlike anything else in the United States.

Likewise, Louisiana is a Land of Lizards, and I was pleased to make the acquaintance of this hormonally-inflamed Green Anole (albeit a brownish one).

After a brief and rather bored return to my normal life in Santa Cruz, one of my esteemed Bigoteros rescued me (in the form of an escapist-style fugue) to the Mountains of Arizona. We birded a lot. I encountered some very rare birds (from a UnitedStatesian perspective, anyway), as well as others not rare but nevertheless heretofore-unseen-by-me. Mushrooms were very scarce, since the monsoon rains that awaken these forests with mycological magic are still months away. However, we did have one encounter that tickled my ornitho-amygdala and fungal-cortex simultaneously:

While birding at Madera Canyon, we found this Elegant Trogon calling near its nest. 

Like all trogons, this species nests in tree cavities (previously excavated by woodpeckers). I suspect that wood-decaying polypores play a role in ‘ripening’ (softening) the dead wood of snags that woodpeckers and other cavity-nesting birds depend on - evidence of such a relationship is perhaps present in the picture below, with a Phellinus fruiting abundantly above the Elegant Trogon’s nest hole. 

Or perhaps it’s the reverse? Maybe the fungi infect the wound on the tree after the woodpecker has penetrated the protective outer bark? Either way, I bet that the interactions between birds and fungi in these temperate forests is not as peripheral as it might seem.

[mycobratpack]

March 19th is Taxonomist Appreciation Day. 

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I'm probably more excited to give this talk than any other I've ever given.

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A Pseudo-Big Day in Santa Cruz

     I have always wondered how many mushroom species it would be possible to see in one day in Santa Cruz County. Since this fall has been so exceptionally fruitful for mushrooms, I decided to give it a go… How else to find out? 

     I chose this time of the year because the fall mushroom assemblage is rapidly transitioning into the winter assemblage, briefly bumping up easily-seen diversity during the period of overlap.  Since I didn’t have a full day to commit start to finish (Christmas parties, work, etc.), I had to spread out my efforts over four days. 5 hours were spent on the 18th, 2 hours cumulatively on the 19th and 20th, and 2 hours on the 21st (drive times included, without overlapping drive times removed). Totaled up, this roughly equals the amount of available daylight (plus maybe a little headlight hunting) that is usually available during this period of fall/winter overlap. I’m quite sure that all the mushrooms I encountered could have been found on either the 18th or the 21st. I ended up with 270 species (not all identified to species, but recognizable RTUs).

      I think this is clear evidence that 300 species could be seen by one person in a single day during a good year in Santa Cruz County. I think it’s even feasible to get well over this number, keeping in mind:

 1. Start with a prioritized list of expected species. I missed many common species.

2. Scout the week ahead of time to locate rarer taxa - I did no scouting.

3. Plan an efficient driving route. I made mine up as I went, and some driving time is double-counted in my 9 hours.

4. Learn to distinguish Mycena and other tough taxa by sight (at least with provisional names) - I put no real effort into distinguishing gray Mycenas and other difficult groups (Galerina, Leptonia), although I did so with Cortinarius.

5. Spend most of your time at a few high-productivity areas that are relatively close to one another but very different from one habitat-wise (minimizing drive time while maximizing species turnover between sites). Driving time was the single biggest detracting factor.

6. Go alone, and don’t photograph species for which a photo is not helpful in later distinction. I spent a lot of time photographing mushrooms and talking to my companions, which was very pleasant but didn’t serve this particular bizarre goal.

The areas I visited were: Ponderosa Lodge, Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park (near Graham Hill Road), Fall Creek Unit (near Empire Grade), UCSC (oaks northwest of the Arboretum), Big Basin State Park (visitor center area to Pine Mountain Trail and part of Skyline to the Sea), Pogonip, the San Lorenzo River corridor (including the Cemetery near Ocean Street Extension), and a few neighborhood spots including my yard.

 Below is the list of mushrooms I encountered:

Agaricus albolutescens (prime fruiting at Henry Cowell)

** Agaricus fuscofibrillosus (first time I have seen it in the county, urban cypress)

Agaricus hondensis

Agaricus micromegathus

Agaricus praeclaresquamosus (new name pending)

Agaricus subrutilescens

Agaricus xanthodermus

Agrocybe pediades

Agrocybe praecox (only saw it in my front yard!)

Alboleptonia sericella

Amanita augusta

Amanita baccata (sandhills around Henry Cowell Observation Deck)

Amanita constricta

Amanita gemmata

Amanita muscaria

Amanita novinupta 

Amanita pantherina group

Amanita phalloides

Amanita silvicola

Annulohypoxylon thouarsianum

Antrodia madronae

Antrodia sp. (a small, large-pored species on SCZ Mtn. manzanita)

Armillaria mellea

Armillaria solidipes

Astraeus hygrometricus

Atheniella adonis

Auriscalpium vulgare

Bjerkandera adusta (one large fruiting in Pogonip near the Koi Pond)

Bolbitius titubans

Calocera cornea

Cantharellus californicus

Caulorhiza umbonata

Chalciporus piperatoides

Cheimonophyllum candidissimus

Chlorophyllum brunneum (many under Eucalyptus along San Lorenzo River)

Chroogomphus ochraceus

Claudopus sp. (on sand at Ponderosa Lodge)

Clavaria “blunt tips”

Clavaria falcata

** Clavaria flavipes - very rare, perhaps 4th North American collection? Big Basin.

Clavaria vermicularis

Clavariadelphus occidentalis (small fruiting under Live Oak, Pogonip)

** Clavariadelphus cf. truncatus (rare for this area, Fall Creek)

Clavulinopsis laeticolor

Clitocybe sp.

Clitocybe "shallow gills"

Clitocybe californiensis

Clitocybe fragrans

Clitocybe nebularis

Clitocybe nuda

Clitocybe odora

Clitocybe trulliformis

Clitocybula sp.

Clitopilus nitellinus

Coniophora olivacea

Coprinellus flocculosus

Coprinellus Section Micacei

Coprinopsis (fuzzy white on horse dung)

Coprinus comatus (one fruiting near Koi Pond, Pogonip)

Cortinarius (Section Anomali)

Cortinarius (subgenus Dermocybe)

Cortinarius (subgenus Myxacium)

Cortinarius (subgenus Telamonia) tawny

Cortinarius (subgenus Telamonia) 1

Cortinarius aff. obtusus

Cortinarius aff. laniger

Cortinarius cisqhale

Cortinarius clandestinus

Cortinarius glaucopus

Cortinarius infractus

Cortinarius lilacinocolossus

Cortinarius ohlone

Cortinarius percomis

Cortinarius ponderosus

Cortinarius section Anomali

Cortinarius subgenus Myxacium (bluish-lilac)

Cortinarius subgenus Phlegmacium (dull)

Cortinarius subgenus Phlegmacium (colorful)

Cortinarius subgenus Telamonia purple cap

Cortinarius subgenus Telamonia silvery

Cortinarius trivialis

Cortinarius viridirubescens

Cortinarius xanthodryophilus

Craterellus cornucopioides

Crepidotus mollis

Cuphophyllus fornicatus

Cuphophyllus graveolens

Cuphophyllus lawrencei

Dacrymyces palmatus

Dacrymyces stillatus

Dendrothele candida

Entoloma 1

Entoloma 2

Entoloma 3

Entoloma 4

Entoloma bloxami

Entoloma “conoradicatum”

Entoloma ferruginans

Entoloma subgenus Leptonia 1

Entoloma subgenus Leptonia 2

Entoloma subgenus Nolanea

Entoloma subsaundersi

Fomitopsis cajanderi

** Fomitopsis officinalis (large fruiting on Douglas-fir, Felton-Empire)

Fomitopsis pinicola

Galerina sp.

Galerina marginata

Ganoderma applanatum

Geastrum saccatum

Gliophorus minutulus

Gliophorus psittacinus

Gloeoporus dichrous

Gomphidius oregonensis

Gymnopilus sapineus

Gymnopilus (small bright conifer wood)

Gymnopus (large, madrone bark)

Gymnopus subpruinosus

Gymnopus villosipes

Hebeloma crustuliniforme

Helotiales (yellow disco swarm)

Helvella dryophila

Hemimycena 1

Hemimycena 2

Heterotextus alpinus

Hohenbuehelia grisea

Hydnum (rufescens type?)

Hygrocybe acutoconica

Hygrocybe aurantiosplendens

Hygrocybe coccinea

Hygrocybe singeri

Hygrophorus eburneus

Hygrophorus roseibrunneus

Hypholoma fasciculare

Hypocrea (yellow, on polypore)

Hypomyces microspermus group

Inocybe 1

Inocybe 2

Inocybe geophylla

Inocybe lilacina

Inocybe sororia

Jahnoporus hirtus

Laccaria amethysteo-occidentalis

Laccaria fraterna

Laccaria proxima

Lactarius "montanus"

Lactarius alnicola

Lactarius californiensis

Lactarius deliciosus

Lactarius megacarpus

Lactarius pallidiolivaceus

Lactarius rubidus

Lactarius rubrilacteus

Lactarius rufulus

Lactarius substriatus

Lactarius subvillosus

Lactarius xanthogalactus

Laetiporus gilbertsonii

Lenzites betulina

Leotia lubrica (one fruitbody, Big Basin)

Lepiota 1

Lepiota atrodisca

Lepiota castanea

Lepiota castaneidisca

Lepiota magnispora

Lepiota spheniscispora (late-ish, Pogonip)

Leptonia decolorans

Leptonia formosa

Leptoporus sp.

Leratiomyces ceres

Leratiomyces percevallii

Leucopaxillus albissimus

Leucopaxillus gentianeus

Lichenomphalia umbellifera

Lycoperdon molle (oak, UCSC)

Lycoperdon perlatum

Lycoperdon umbrinum

Lyophyllum decastes

Lyophyllum semitale group (fairly abundant, Big Basin)

Marasmius calhouniae

Marasmius plicatulus

Marasmius quercophilus

Micromphale arbuticola

Mucronella flava

Mucronella fusiformis

Mucronella small white clustered

Mycena 1

Mycena acicula

Mycena aurantiomarginata

Mycena californiensis

Mycena epipterygia (uncommon here, one fruitbody, Big Basin)

Mycena galericulata

Mycena maculata

Mycena oregonensis

Mycena pura

Mycena purpureofusca

Nidula candida

Omphalotus olivascens

Onnia (triquetra?, one fruitbody, pine, Henry Cowell)

Paralepista flaccida

Paxillus "oak undescribed"

Peziza sp.

Phaeoclavulina myceliosa

Phaeolus schweinitzii

** Phallus hadriani (thanks to Linda Rosewood! San Lorenzo corridor)

Phanerochaete sanguinea

Phellinus (oak)

Phellinus arctostaphyli

Phlebia radiata

Phlebia tremellosa

Phloeomana speirea

Pisolithus sp.

Pleurotus ostreatus

Pluteus cervinus group

Porodaedalea pini

** Postia caesia (uncommon here, Empire Grade, on Douglas fir)

Psathyrella candolleana

Psathyrella piluliformis

Psathyrella uliginicola

Psatyhyrella sp.

Pseudobaeospora deckeri (Big Basin)

Pseudobaeospora stevensii (Big Basin)

Pseudohydnum gelatinosum (abundant, Big Basin)

"Purple Fuzz"

Ramaria sp.

** Ramaria apiculata - uncommon here (Big Basin)

Ramaria formosa

Ramaria peach yellow

Ramaria “red”- (uncommon here, Fall Creek)

** Ramaria violaceibrunnea (uncommon here, Fall Creek & Big Basin)

** Rhodocollybia oregonensis - (rare here, Big Basin, first county record?)

Rhodocybe "brown"

Rhodocybe caelata

Rhodocybe nuciolens (two fruitbodies, redwoods at Pogonip)

Rhodophana nitellina

Roridomyces roridus (one fruitbody, Big Basin)

Russula 1

Russula 2

Russula brevipes

Russula cerolens

Russula cremoricolor

Russula cyanoxantha

Russula densifolia

Russula (greenish-brown-capped oak-associated cyanoxantha-type)

Russula murillii

Russula xerampelina

Schizophyllum commune

Simocybe centunculus

Sowerbyella rhenana (one fruiting, Ponderosa Lodge)

Stereum hirsutum

Stictis radiata

Suillellus amygdalinus (a few lateish fruitbodies at Pogonip)

Suillus caerulescens

Suillus fuscotomentosus

Suillus lakei

Trametes versicolor

Tremella aurantia

Tremellodendropsis tuberosa

Trichaptum abietinum

Trichoglossum hirsutum

** Tricholoma aurantia - (quite rare here, Fall Creek)

Tricholoma dryophilum

Tricholoma griseoviolaceum

Tricholoma pessundatum (a few fruitbodies with planted pine, Ocean Street cemetery)

Tricholoma saponaceum (both yellow form with pine and gray-white form with tanoak)

Tricholoma terreum

Tyromyces chioneus

Volvopluteus gloiocephalus

Xerocomellus truncatus

Xerocomellus zelleri

Xerocomus subtomentosus

Xylaria hypoxylon

[mycobratpack]

El Niño Returns

The rains have returned in force to the California coast. The people dance in the streets and in the forest, clothed and nude, ululating wildly with Joy. Some people have amplexus on the mind and are migrating in droves to their breeding pools... oh wait, those are newts. Rot-Spirits populate the woods in tremendous quantities; their faces range from the familiar and friendly to the ghoulish and bizarre. Below are some portraits.

Bolbitius titubans - Patron Saint of Mucous and Being Small

Cortinarius trivialis - Patron Saint of Mucous Girdles 

A Slime Mold/Patron Saint of Keeping Luke Warm on Hoth. I imagine this image will make some of you feel bad feelings.

[mycobratpack]

I've Got the Blues (for You)

There it is. A big old blue Reishi (Ganoderma oregonense).

Hard to refute, but even harder to explain. These color variants (for reasons unknown) of the normally cherry-red Ganoderma oregonense are somewhat rare, but always draw attention when encountered. Noah Siegel reports that they are at least more frequent on the Olympic Peninsula.

This specimen was found by Massachusetts' Arch-Matriarch of another polypore (Grifola frondosa), Elinoar Shavit. She speculated that bacterial or viral infections may be responsible for this color. Which would be interesting if true.

Other blue fungi that I encountered in Washington State earlier this month include the quasi-mythical 'Blue Chanterelle' Polyozellus multiplex. This species is actually more closely related to Thelephora and like many species in that genus it yields some lovely blue dyes for those textile-obsessed among you.

Baby Blues (Polyozellus multiplex) above, older ones below.

And then there was the matter of a really nice swarm of Gymnopilus punctifolius. This species appears to be an old-growth specialist, fruiting most often inside the hollowed ends of big, rotting conifer logs throughout the west.

The coloration of this mushroom is astonishing, and completely like any other members of the genus. The cap ranges from sky-blue at first to greenish, then yellow, and finally a more typical orange. The gills often remain green and the base of the stipe is dabbed with purple mycelium! What?!

Sky-blue baby Gymnopilus punctifolius. Why are they that color tho.

Finally, Cortinarius violaceus. I know it's not blue. But. 

Just look at this hot mess. Purple cap. Orange spores. Fishnets.

Tune in next week for rarer, weirder and/or more interesting fungi I found in the moist and chilly north.

Oh and here's some Mick for your weekend: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyV-jkj0EDI

[mycobratpack]

The Ruddy and the Scaly

Below is pictured Panellus ringens, a mushroom I had never seen before. These ruddy little stemless wonders were a complete surprise - I had never even heard of this species before. The only others of the genus I've run across are P. stipticus and P. mitis, both much duller in color. Rhyme accomplished.

And this... this is the incomparable Pholiota squarrosa. Scaly beyond compare. So photogenic. These turned out to be quite common.

[mycobratpack]

There are some really cool organisms that live in Alaska. Some of them are fungi.

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High Altitudes, High Latitudes

It's weird how latitude and altitude are anagrams.

Especially because it turns out that they are intimately related, as far as biogeography goes.

The Harding Icefield, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska. elevation ca. 3,000 feet. Notice the lack of trees.

Lemme back up a bit... I know I have not posted in some time. Apologies. And I left this here blog with that pants-shitting cliffhanger. Sorry. It turns out I didn't perish on my summer journeys. To recap: I went to Telluride, Colorado and then immediately afterwards, I went to Alaska's Kenai Peninsula. The former is at relatively low latitude (37 degrees North), but hosts some high altitudes (13,000 feet), while the latter is at high latitude (around 60 North), but only hosts moderate altitudes (maxing out at 6,000 feet or so).

Blue Lake, SE Colorado. Elevation ca. 12,000 feet. No trees here either.

I found that the two places felt rather similar (from a mushroom flora perspective). Leccinum were common and diverse in both places, probably due to the shared abundance of Salicaceaous and Betulaceous host trees (namely poplar/aspen and birch).

An anonymous Leccinum, Quartz Creek, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska. This one is likely with an Ericaceous plant, unlike many of its brethren that consort with Betulaceous hosts.

Leccinum insigne, slightly less anonymous. Telluride, CO.

In both places, I found waxcaps growing in ridiculously harsh, cold, windswept bryophyte hummocks well above treeline. Representatives below:

Chromosera citrinopallida, just a few hundred yards from the edge of the Harding Icefield Glacier.

Hygrocybe conica at nearly 13,000 feet of elevation at Blue Lake, CO.

The similarity of the mycoflora (and organismal assemblages in general) at high latitudes and high altitudes is a well known biogeographic phenomenon. One of the first major efforts to quantify this resulted in the Holdridge Life Zone system.

A nice image by Wikipedian Pengo showing these zones is below.

Arctic and alpine habitas are charismatic places populated with charismatic taxa. Not surprisingly, there are lots of people who have devoted vast amounts of time and energy (and labored breath) to learning about them. Gary Laursen, David Largent and the magnificent Cathy Cripps, to name but a few of the more mycologically-oriented of these. Unfortunately, the continued existence of many high-latitude and/or high-altitude species is in particularly severe jeopardy in the face of rapid global warming.

Because mountaintops are essentially isloated islands of suitable habitat for these species (and alpine specialists often have very limited dispersal ability), a hotter planet may leave them homeless. To understand the theory behind that frightening possibility, read the article here. One such species is the American Pika (I photographed the one pictured below in Colorado). Since it's a lot cuter than a mushroom, or a ptarmigan, or a gentian (or anything else, really), we should use its fuzzy, squeaky little face in our arctic and alpine habitat conservation efforts. Oh wait, these people already did.

To end this post before it gets too long, let me just say I saw overwhelming numbers of mushrooms this summer (many of which I'd never seen before) and got to see firsthand some really neat biogeographic patterns and ecological phenomena. More posts including photos and thoughts on those experiences are sure to come. Thanks for bearing with me through my summery silence.

[mycobratpack]

The Mycoflora of Alaska - Interview with Kate Mohatt

Forest floor near Cooper Landing © Kate Mohatt

So... I'm going to Alaska next month and I am dangerously excited about it. I can't stop thinking about it. Hordes of Leccinums. Dall Sheep. MOUNTAIN GOATS. Oh yeah bears too. And BIRDS. But my primary purpose for being there is to give a lecture on Citizen Science and to collect fungi for the first foray of the North American Mycoflora Project. For more on that, see this. Noah Siegel (my coauthor on Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast) has been working closely with Kate Mohatt to make this foray a reality. Kate seems like a singular kind of person and a bit of a dynamo, so I decided to interview her. Read on! And consider visiting us in Girdwood...

Kate Mohatt showing off mushrooms © National Forest Public Affairs

C: Hi Kate! Who are you? What do you?!

K: I'm the Prince William Sounds Zone and Copper River Delta Ecologist for the Chugach National Forest. I have been on the Forest since 2006 doing plant work mostly on the Kenai side, but switched zones to the PWS in 2010. I primarily deal with botanical or vegetation ecology work, including invasive plant management, rare plant conservation, reviewing vegetation maps, some change detection using remote sensing, and vegetation change monitoring. I also coordinate with several partners (Copper River Watershed project, Alaska Association of Conservation Districts) to develop and update invasive plant treatment plans and Cooperative Weed management Area strategic plans. We’ve been slowly but surely getting fungi on the Forest radar, which has resulted in several on-going projects on the forest including: Girdwood Fungus Fair, which attracts around 500-800 folks throughout the weekend, the Cordova Fungus Festival, and the last few years we have been doing mushroom surveys to voucher and record as many species as possible on the Chugach (with Steve Trudell), with an emphasis on determining if any species considered rare in Regions 5 and 6 may be rare up here as well.. We also published the Mushrooms of the National Forests of Alaska brochure last year.

C: Mushrooms have until recently been an obscure and unloved group of organisms (by most United States people). How did you get into fungi?  

K: I bought my first mushroom book when I was 14 (Gary Lincoff's Audubon guide) and have been hooked ever since, even though I couldn’t identify anything (I think I started with Cortinarius). I spent one year of undergrad at Montana State, where I met Cathy Cripps and she hired me to work on the fungal herbarium and assist her graduate student in collecting alpine fungi (Todd Osmundson). I later completed an MSc. Program under Cathy, identifying ectomycorrhizal species associated with whitebark pine (http://fedgycc.org/documents/Mohatt-Cripps-fungi-WBP-CJB-2008.pdf) and I’ve been collecting and leading forays for the public up here since 2006.

C: So... this is the first 'official foray' for the North American Mycoflora Project. Although they sort of all are... Anyway, how did that happen? 

K: This foray was originally supposed to be a NAMA regional Foray, which I was approached by David Rust to do, with the idea of later doing the annual foray in AK. Due to a variety of issues (ask Noah for all the details), we decided to scale back to make it more doable and affordable and lost NAMA interest in the process.

C: Ugh. Seriously? I guess I should interview Noah for the grisly story. But it's happening anyway! You triumphed!

K: So, we started discussing a more serious collecting outing, and Noah had the stroke of genius to morph it into the first collecting foray for the North American Mycoflora Project. This aligns really nicely with Forest Service goals for the ongoing mushroom surveys, which are to catalog all the species we have up here while maximizing partner support and participation.

C: That's so, so, so good. Big ups. But wait... I've never been to Alaska before! What can I expect? What sort of habitats will we be seeing in Girdwood and later on the Kenai Peninsula?    

K: Cooper Landing is in a perfect spot for accessing nearly all major representative habitats found in Alaska. Within one hour of driving, we'll collect in the Northern-most coastal temperate rainforests on the planet (Girdwood, Seward), boreal white/black spruce forests (Sterling), hardwood forests (also boreal) with aspen and birch (just outside Cooper Landing), an intermediate zone between the two (Cooper Landing) characterized by Lutz spruce (Picea glauca x sitchensis), and alpine habitats dominated by dwarf birch and willow.

Habitat at Cooper Landing © Daniel Winkler

Last year we had a very late snowy spring followed by a warm sunny summer which delayed fruiting by about two weeks, but produced the most epic Boletus edulis fruitings I have ever seen. This year we had a very warm and dry spring, with a warm summer and many violent bursts of rain in wind, so I can’t really say what we will have in store for the fall, but it will rain, it always does. The decomposers are out in force right on schedule, and I found one very fresh Leccinum in early July, which is about a month early. There have also been a few B. edulis coming up already, but that’s all I’ve seen for ectomycorrhizal species. In the 12 mushroom seasons I have witnessed, I have never seen a dry year. The edibles folks might be disappointed, but I don’t think the diversity will disappoint, that is, if you are into Cortinarius and Russula.

C: My understanding is that the mushrooms collected during this foray will be sent off for sequencing! That's great news. Can you tell me more about that?  K: Else (Vellinga) and Noah will know more about this, but in a nutshell, the goal is to get nice collections, photographs and sequences of every species we can find. For this project I’ve ordered 100 Whatman cards for DNA extraction and preservation, which should be good for up to 400 species, so I hope we fill them all! Noah has been making contacts with folks in labs who are willing to do the sequence work and I can’t wait to see what shakes out. C: I am pants-shittingly excited to be in Alaska. Thanks for doing so much work to set this up! Your name will be inscribed in the Halls of Valor once the North American Mycoflora Project is finished and has its own museum near Capitol Hill. K: ...

See you there!

[mycobratpack]

A Common Problem with Mushroom Books

You wouldn't think of buying a bird field guide that didn't tell you what area of the world it covered, would you? Unfortunately, books like the one above often don't mention anywhere that they are covering European mushrooms, or Eastern United States mushrooms, etc.* Which is pretty ridiculous, and perpetuates the really bad habit of using "borrowed" European names for species that don't occur in our area. If you don't tell people explicitly that they shouldn't apply the names in your book to the names in their area, they'll do just that. I guess the publishers are trying to scrounge profit by not tying the book to a specific region, but they're doing mushroomers a huge disservice...

Thomas Laessoe and Gary Lincoff, you should try to fix this! Further evidence of a kind of sloppy book was found by opening randomly to this page, which includes a misspelling of Gomphidius, as well as an inadvisable usage of Agaricus xanthoderm -a instead of -us.

A good point by sasscrotch in the comments below: yes, the authors did seem to have chosen species that are likely to be found outside of Europe as well (and did a pretty good job). But this is an increasingly difficult position to defend, since the majority of our investigations of 'shared species' have shown that there is a lot of geographical difference between places like California (endemic hotspot that it is), and between the Eastern US and Europe. Many of the truly shared species are associated with the northern boreal forests (where conifers are more or less similar across wide swaths of the Arctic zone).

[mycobratpack]

Citizen Science: Amateur Ain't a Dirty Word

Or: Progress Is Hard (and Messy) And: Everything You Wanted to Know About Mycoflora Projects but Never Cared Enough to Ask (EYWKAMPNCEA).

A very far eastern Dendrocollybia... Read on for details.

*With a title containing the terms "Amateur" and "hard and messy", this post better get some traffic...* So! There's been a lot of trollish, flamey, someone-is-wrong-on-the-internet-style discussions over at Mushroom Observer recently, and despite the entertainment value, I thought a blog post might help quell the animosity and clear up some of the common outstanding questions and misconceptions under discussion. The discussions revolve around Citizen Science and the associated questions: How does it work? Is it really science? Am I a citizen scientist? If so, is there a cure? Basically, I came to realize that many folks aren't sure what citizen science is, how it works, or how it should be done. So to begin with, I'll just say that I use the definition below. Citizen scientists = anyone who doesn't have a degree related to their natural history interests and/or doesn't work in that field as an academic (professor, researcher, or field worker) or in the private sector (whether as researcher, technician or field biologist). (wikipedia definition of Citizen Science here). Given these definitions, here's the context in which these discussions are situated, and a summary of what's at stake: The North American Mycoflora Project got its act together (ie. gave itself a name) in the past handful of years. The goal of the NAMP (as I'll call it) are: 1) Compile a list of each and every macrofungal species in North America. 2) Get a good general sense of where those species grow and when they fruit. 3) Photograph them and get voucher specimens (dried mushrooms stored in a museum). This is (if it's not immediately apparent) a huge, Herculean, Sisyphean, Just-give-up-now-ean undertaking. We have no real estimate of how many mushrooms grow in North America, but the order of magnitude is likely in the high tens/low hundreds -of-thousands. Their taxonomy is unsettled, their identification often extremely difficult, and many are not easy or predictable to find. But! It's something folks think is worth doing, and lots of people have an interest in seeing it through. Suffice to say it's happening.

These are some of the nerds responsible for making it happen.

My first contention is that professional scientists (mostly researchers at universities) stand no chance of doing this by themselves. Too many mushrooms, too enormous an area, and too many other responsibilities spreading their time thin. It is a mostly uncontested fact that the large majority of the work will be done by people who search for, identify, document and preserve mushrooms simply because they love them. They could be called "hobbyists", but for our purposes, we'll call them citizen scientists. But it turns out that when you solicit data from such a demographic, you get back data of widely varying quality. At one end of the spectrum you have knowledgeable folks like Ron Pastorino who are just the bee's knees in terms of data quality, and at the other end you have the waynegrompskys of the world. In short, you end up dealing with what scientists call a "noisy" data set. Much of the data is incorrect, much of it is partially incorrect, much of it is correct but incomplete, much of it is correct given current understanding but not verifiable, etc. What folks need to understand is that THIS IS NORMAL. The study of every group of organisms from birds to insects to mammals has experienced these growing pains. The most important first step in generating a mycoflora is to gather as much data as possible, and secondly, to have a good system of filters in place to sort through it. I spent a few days with Carol and C.J. Ralph this past fall while I was in Humboldt giving a mushroom lecture - they're heroes of the bird observatory scene in the Pacific Northwest, and C.J. is heavily involved in eBird (the most successful citizen-science project ever). While we were discussing the difficulties that mycofloristic projects face, C.J. used a metaphor that stuck with me; something to the effect of "Set the gates wide, but make the doorway narrow". In a concrete sense this means: Accept as much data as you can get, but be discriminating about what data you end up using to do higher-level work! One of the main complaints folks are voicing in this regard is the high proportion of observations on Mushroom Observer that are not accompanied by a photograph or voucher specimen (or neither). While it is clear to ABSOLUTELY EVERYONE that an observation with an accompanying photo and herbarium specimen is ideal, it is simply not realistic to expect that this will be the case. Some reasons that we can't or shouldn't take photos of every record - a good photograph often takes a minute to set up, a few 10-second exposures to take, and a minute to place collections in the tackle box; assuming 90 seconds for the entire process for each species, an average day of mushrooming on the California coast (75 species) would take just under two hours. That excludes the time spent walking, searching for, inspecting, etc. Basically, this is under the assumption that multiple good-condition fruitbodies of every species encountered were all fruiting right next to one another right next to the parking lot. Now consider that a 250 species day is not out of the question in the northwestern part of the state in November. Now add in the labor cost involved in preserving, labeling, organizing, and curating specimens, and we quickly see that this is a gargantuan task. And we haven't even mentioned the time and cost involved in responding to requests for specimens (locating, dividing, and mailing). This would be no problem if there were 10 to 15 paid positions across the state for folks to do these things full time. The actual number is close to 0. So, while specimens are certainly the 'gold standard' for proving the occurrence of a species at a given time and place, it is simply not feasible to expect or require them in every case. People often respond by asking "Well then, what if I report rare mushroom species X from California that has never been seen there before, but don't have a photo or specimen?" Well, the answer is that the data would be discounted by most everyone. However, if you report a common mushroom species Y that is well known to occur in California without a photo or specimen, then yes, your data would likely be used for research. Isn't this a differing standard for acceptable data? Yes! It is! The acceptable use of double standards is mediated by an understanding of the relative probabilities of finding x and y mushroom species in the place and at the time you are reporting. Exceptional cases require a higher burden of proof. This is absolutely typical of citizen science data gathered for other taxa. Well what about gray areas? What if I report a somewhat rare mushroom fruiting in a place it's never been seen before, but in appropriate habitat?

The answer is that the person using the data will have to make a judgement call on whether or not to include your data point. And different folks using the same data for different applications may make different judgement calls! This is true of all sorts of scientific data and research. What about observations of mushrooms that are well-photographed but aren't accompanied by a voucher specimen? Well, that will obviously limit the kinds of investigation we can do (no genetic testing, microscopic investigation, etc.), but we CAN add a +1 to the species total for the area, we can gain insight into the distribution of higher level classifications (genera for example), and most importantly, we can establish a search image for future collecting work in the region. For example, I 'accidentally' found an extremely rare collection of Dendrocollybia while collecting in New Hampshire in 2011 (this currently monotypic genus is functionally never encountered in the East). I photographed it (sufficient to rule out all other genera), but somehow lost the specimen in the labyrinth of Noah's car on the way home (I had no idea at the time how rare it was). So my observation here is not as useful as it might have been (we can't establish whether it is conspecific with the west coast species in this genus), but we at least now know that a Dendrocollybia grows in this part of the country (see map below). Importantly, we can use this observation to narrow our search area when we decide to go our and search for specimens in order to answer questions that require them!

Another common source of frustration and hand-wringing regarding noisy citizen science data comes from a truth that we are all familiar with: mushrooms can be very hard to identify. There are many species that look very much like one another, and telling them apart is perhaps not possible for non-professionals. This is true groups of taxa in every group of organisms, and its something that can be dealt with relatively easily. The mycoflora community should constantly be working on establishing criteria for identification, and in cases where those criteria are not met, a higher-level classification is used instead.

Below are two screenshots showing eBird's functionality that allows users to enter observations of recording aggregates of two flavors: evolutionary sister species that are often difficult to tell apart, as well as non-phyletic but functionally useful groupings. This latter feature is really useful - it allows us to avoid throwing away data without forcing us to claim that our data is of a greater accuracy than is true.

Phyletic recording aggregate (sister species of Haemorhous)

Non-phyletic, descriptive recording aggregate (black & white shearwater)

For a long time, before a lot of photos were made and countless hours of field observations undertaken, much of what ornithologists knew about birds was based on specimens that had been collected with shotguns. This period of specimen collection is a normal, desirable part of the process. However, mycology has the mixed blessing of being a late-blooming field of taxonomy, and we can accelerate or skip over some of the early steps. Most of us have some sort of good digital camera - so, while specimens are still the 'gold standard', they need not be as constraining as they once were. Keep in mind that the researchers making decisions about what data to accept are staking the integrity of their research and personal reputation on the quality of that data. It will be in their interest to look for supporting details, perhaps even going so far as to contact the observer directly and asking them more questions. ... Which happens every day on eBird: regional editors look into the rare and noteworthy bird sightings and engage users directly to make sure that the data is acceptably solid for inclusion in their research or the general database. Unfortunately, Mushroom Observer doesn't have such a system set up yet. This is understandable, given the lack of good mushroom taxonomists in much of the country, and the time and commitment it takes to do such data curation (although still vastly less time than photographing and vouchering every record ever). But it worked for birders, and it can work for us. It'll take many meetings to hash out exactly how it should happen, but it definitely should happen.

Nathan Wilson, founder of Mushroom Observer, observing mushrooms. So meta.

Noah Siegel and I will be taking a break from writing our upcoming field guide "Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast" by visiting Telluride, Colorado and then Alaska's Kenai Peninsula at the end of August to participate in one of the first forays specifically tailored for the North American Mycoflora Project. Most of our collecting will be in the Chugach National Forest, thanks to the coordinating efforts of Kate Mohatt. Look for an upcoming interview with her on this blog next week. Have fun out there! For some more reading on the NAMP, see these articles: Matheny and Vellinga Bruns and Beug