Welcome to PSMS!

Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2021 - 7:00pm

Monthly Meeting

Britt Bunyard - Amanitas of the Pacific NW and Beyond

Our general meeting will be held on Tuesday October 12, 2021 at the Center for Urban Horticulture. In line with the mandates provided by the University of Washington and the State of Washington, Masks will be required and by vote of the PSMS Board, proof of Vaccination will also be required. We hope that by next year we can include children under 12 again since PSMS has always been a family friendly organization.

Entry to the meeting will begin at 7:00 p.m. and the program will begin at 7:30 p.m. We will be having a hybrid In-Person / Zoom meeting. Verbal participation will be restricted to in-person only to prevent Zoom Bombing.

Click here to join this meeting virtually.

Britt Bunyard will be our guest speaker. The topic he will present is "The Amanitas of the Pacific NW and Beyond". In Britt's words: "Amanitas arguably are the most recognized and fascinating of all mushrooms. Amanita species mostly are big and showy, and ubiquitous over most of the planet wherever terrestrial plants grow. These mushrooms have been the subject of lore, make the news headlines with regularity, and Amanitas have even changed the course of world history. Many Amanita species are highly prized as choice edibles and commercially available in markets around the world. Others are infamous for annually causing death to careless pickers-indeed 90% of mushroom-related fatalities are due to Amanita species."

Britt Bunyard, PhD, is the founder, Publisher, and Editor-in-Chief of the mycology journal Fungi. Britt has worked academically as a mycologist his entire career, teaching a number of university courses and writing scientifically for many research journals and popular science magazines. He has served as an editor for mycological and entomological research journals, and mushroom guide books. A popular evangelizer on all things fungal, Britt has been featured on NPR's All Things Considered, PBS's NOVA and Wisconsin Foodie television programs; and interviewed or quoted in Discover magazine, The Atlantic, Vox, Vogue, Forbes, Saveur, Eating Well, Hobby Farm, Women's World, and other magazines and newspapers.

Britt serves as Executive Director of the Telluride Mushroom Festival. He has authored several books, including Amanitas of North America (2020; The FUNGI Press), The Beginner's Guide to Mushrooms (2021; Quarry Books), Mushrooms and Macrofungi of Ohio and Midwestern States (2012; The Ohio State University Press), and the forthcoming The Secret Life of Fungi (Princeton University Press) due out this winter. In 2021 Britt was awarded the Gary Lincoff Award "For Contributions to Amateur Mycology," by the North American Mycological Association-NAMA's most prestigious honor for American mycologists.