BULLETIN OF THE PUGET SOUND MYCOLOGICALSOCIETY
Number 356, November 1999
Electronic Edition is published monthly, September through Juneby the
Puget Sound Mycological Society
Center for Urban Horticulture, Box 354115
University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
(206) 522-6031
Agnes A. Sieger, Editor
Board NewsAgnes Sieger
Fifty-one new members signed on at the annualexhibit, down somewhat from last year. Attendance was also down,but the show appears to have at least broken even. Because of amishap in scheduling, the Lake Quinault foray had to be cancelled.Steven Bell requested that people continue sending interesting anduseful items to include in the PSMS website. Steven has set March11 as the date for next year's banquet. Patrice Benson, StevenBell, and Russ Kurtz volunteered to be on the nominating committeefor next year's election. Possible candidates were discussed.Joanne Young will organize the December "cookie bash." Candidateswere discussed for the Golden Mushroom Award.
CALENDAR
Nov. 9 Membership Meeting, 7:30 PM, CUH
Nov. 10 Intermediate ID class
Nov. 13 Microscopy workshop
Nov. 14 Microscopy workshop
Nov. 15 Board meeting, 7:30 PM, CUH BoardRoom
Nov. 17 Intermediate ID class
Nov. 26 Spore Prints deadline
Dec. 14 Membership Meeting and "cookie bash," 7:30 PM, CUH
MEMBERSHIP MEETING
Tuesday, November 9, at 7:30 PM at the Centerfor Urban Horticulture, 3501 NE 41st Street, Seattle.
This month's program features Gregg Shiosaki,Northwest chef, food consultant, and chef instructor. ChefShiosaki's program and cooking demonstration, "Contemporary GourmetUses of Mushrooms," will present recent trends in mushroom cooking.Find out how chefs are using mushrooms, including oils and powders,as seasoning.
Now a chef instructor at North Seattle CommunityCollege Culinary Arts Program, Gregg has been working withmushrooms most of his life. His parents, Pauline and FloydShiosaki, were early active PSMS members. In the mid-1960s, hismother, Pauline Shiosaki, edited the first PSMS cookbook. After allthe recipes were tested on the family, Gregg said he didn't eatanother mushroom for many, many years. He has clearly come fullcircle!
Would persons with last names beginning with theletters U_Z please bring refreshments for the social hour?
CALLING ALL ARTISTS JoanneYoung
Artists of all kinds! This is a chance to showyour talent, skill, and/or quirky sense of humor. The December 14meeting and annual "Cookie Bash" will include an Art Show andContest. Bring a work of mushroom-related art in any medium: food,ceramics, glass, photography, painting, Jello, drawing, sculpture,etc. Prize winners will be decided by popular election. Contestcategories are yet to be determined, but mirth shall be highlyprized. More details to come in the December SporePrints.
MATSUTAKE RESEARCH PROJECT CONTINUES
Northwest Institute for Bioregional Research, Vol. 2,Issue 2, 1999, via Mycofile, the Newsletter of the VancouverMyco. Soc.
Last year the Northwest Institute undertook anoverview of the pine mushrooms in the Bulkley-Skeena region.Mycologist Sharmin Gamiet did a literature review and talked withresearchers in the area to compile a comprehensive list of researchthat has relevance for the northwest. The report includes adiscussion of human impacts on the pine mushroom from timberharvesting to management as well as from mushroom harvesting.Community issues and concerns are identified, including conflictsover forest resource use, environmental damage, safety issues, andeconomics of the harvest. Finally the report concludes withrecommendations about priorities for research in the Bulkley-Skeenaand the strategies to maintain the pine mushroom.
The second phase of the mushroom project beganwith a workshop in June bringing together people from around thenorthwest with an interest in mushrooms, including pickers, buyers,members of First Nations, representatives of municipalities,resource managers, researchers, etc., to discuss priorities for thenext phase of work. Following that workshop, a work plan was drawnup involving three components—field work to describe mushroomsites, a computer model analysis
of pine mushroom and timber production in theCranberry timber supply area, and mapping of potential mushroomsites based on the site series descriptions from the fieldwork.
In the fall, field work was undertaken byresearchers Rick Trowbridge and Anne Macadam, assisted by ourtechnical advisor Mary Kranabetter from the research section of theMinistry of Forests. Twenty one sites known to be highly productivepine mushroom habitat were ecologically described and classified.Sites—mainly in the Hazelton, Kispiox, Terrace, andCranberry-Meziadin areas—were located with the assistance ofexperienced mushroom pickers, and information on the site and standcharacteristics, vegetation, and soils was collected at each.
The sites were found to have much in common withpine mushroom habitat described in previous studies elsewhere inB.C. Soil moisture regimes were drier than average, and soilnutrient regimes in most cases were poorer than average for thebiogeoclimatic subzone and variant because of a combination of soiland site features. Soils were well to rapidly drained, andgenerally had a coarse fragment content. Forest floors tended to berelatively thin and classified as hemimors. Plant communitiestypically featured sparse herb and shrub layers, which oftenincluded the following species: black huckleberry, falsebox, falseazalea, prince's-pine, twinflower, bunchflower, and rattlesnakeplantain. Western hemlock was consistently the dominant treespecies, and lodgepole pine was frequently, though not always,present in the tree layer. In most, but not all plots, there was ahigh coverage of mosses, usually dominated by stepmoss andred-stemmed feathermoss. The ecosystems are described andclassified in their report.
Later in the winter, Gerald Olivotto used acomputer model to investigate the synergies and trade-offs betweenforest management predominantly for timber compared with forestmanagement for both pine mushrooms and timber. He found thatsignificant rates of timber harvest are necessary to maximize pinemushroom production.
Mushrooms thrive in younger mature forest, andharvesting the older forest creates a stream of young maturingstands. An economic assessment found that the total economic yieldfrom the forest is maximized at a rotation age of approximately 145years. This rotation age extends the period of mushroomproductivity and the development of valuable timber piece sizes.Shorter rotations lose more in mushroom value than the gain in woodfiber. Longer rotations lose more timber increments than the gainin mushroom yield. The report identifies further informationrequirements for mushroom and timber management, and concludes witha comprehensive list of activities that would improve understandingof the subject.
The final component of the project isidentification of potential mushroom sites in the Kispiox and partsof the West Nass small business tenure. Using air photos of theareas, researchers are indicating which portions of the landscapehave site characteristics similar to those identified in the fieldwork of known mushroom sites. As well as identifying sites, theintention is to quantify that portion of the forest that ispotential mushroom habitat.
The final phase of the project will be aworkshop bringing together the interested parties who met initiallyin June in order that they can report on the findings from thevarious studies and get input on priorities for further mushroomresearch.
Copies of the report from both Phase Iand Phase II of the mushroom project are available uponrequest from the Northwest Institute.
RENEW YOUR DUES NOW, FOR PASSAGE TO THE AGEOF AGARICUS DV Corey
My fellow Society members, I come to you with ajoyful heart, for we stand not at the threshold of a new year, nora new century, nay, not even of a new millennium. You and I areprivileged to see the dawning of a new age. Yes, as the clock ticksdown the final moments of December we will witness the dawningof—"the Age of Agaricus, the Age of Agaricus.Where happiness and understanding, morels and edulisabounding, no more falsehoods or derisions, golden living dreams ofvisions, cibarius and subalbidus and fungi's true liberation,Agaricus…Agaricus."
Now you may well wonder where ground zero forthese momentous events will be. Let the kettle drum resound to thetrumpets and the trumpets speak to the skies, for the epicenter ofthe Age of Agaricus is no other than the Puget Sound MycologicalSociety. Yes, you have read correctly—this is no typographicalerror, no mad man's dream. The Age of Agaricus begins in ourmembers meetings, on our field trips, in the sage pages of thisvery newsletter. Yet, I perceive a cloud darkening the fair brow ofyon reader, the worry of your place in these events? Don't worry,be happy.
To guarantee your place in the front row of theAge of Agaricus requires no Italian mushrooming pilgrimage,nor joining the endless foray of Master Taylor Lockwood—onlyrenew. Yes, renew your membership now, right now, the Post Officeis standing by. Not next week, not after the holidays. Place theenclosed renewal form in an envelope with a measly, a paltry, apitifully meager pecuniary remuneration of 20 dollars US (familymembership) or 10 dollars (student membership), affix one 33-centCertificate of Postal Enablement, pop it in the box, and await withbaited breath by return mail your PSMS 2000 Admission toEnlightenment. If only the new age also brought me some hair.
MEMBERSHIP NEWS
Francesco Bellu in Bolzano, Italy.
Dr. Bellu was delighted that his missingmushroom had been located, and suggested that Dr. Craddock e-mailDr. Vellinga with the good news. And thus, finally, no thanks tothe US Post Office, Else received her wandering specimen. Thestudent's missing box of books remains missing.
PASSWORD CHANGE Colin Meyer
I have changed the userid / password to accessthe PSMS members-only section of the PSMS website,http://www.psms.
See the current print version of Spore Prints for thepassword.
The old password will remain in effect untilmid-November, when members will have received the SporePrints with the new access information.
The userid / password will be good for severalmonths. It may well be changed again when we cut off thenonrenewals in February or March and then again later in the year.The userid / password will be listed under the PSMS websiteaddress in the issue block on page 2.
MEET JOSHUA BIRKEBAK Ron Post
Joshua was born on September 11, 1989, inSeattle, one month after his parents, Tambra and Doug Birkebak,moved here from the Midwest. Of the four Birkebak children, "Joshuais the zealot. He is so eager to learn," said his mother, Tambra.Joshua has a keen interest in science, and he likes to spend timewatching his two sisters play soccer or taking care of a menageriethat includes fish, lizards, walking sticks, and a freshwater crab.Joshua and his three siblings are being home-schooled, and he is afine example of how a home curriculum can succeed.
Joshua was introduced to mushrooms by MarianMaxwell, another "zealot. This year, Joshua organized the firstchildren's table ever at a PSMS exhibit. It was such a hit thatseveral new members said he was their incentive to join PSMS.
Welcome to the club, Josh.
THANKS FOR THE MUSHROOMS! JimBerlstein
This was not a great year for edible mushrooms,and this could have been a problem for the cooking section of themushroom show. However, Paul Stamets of Fungi Perfecti and Kristina Taber of Zen-NohUnico America Corp. generously donated large quantities of ediblemushrooms to the show. This allowed the cooks to churn out onespectacular dish after another, without any fear of running out ofmushrooms. PSMS is very grateful for these gifts. On behalf of themembers, and all who sampled the food at the show, thanks!
1996 ANNUAL EXHIBIT
The oldest fossil ascomycetes T.N.Taylor,
H. Hass, and H. Kerp Nature, Vol. 399, p. 648 (1999) viaMycofile, newsletter of the Vancouver Myco. Soc.
Ascomycetes are the largest group of true fungi,and characteristically produce their sexual spores in a sac-likestructure called the ascus. They include medicinal agents (such asergot), plant pathogens (Dutch elm disease is caused by anascomycete), and yeasts used in fermentation. We have found theoldest ascomycetous fungi with flask-shaped ascocarps inthin-section preparations of the Lower Devonian (400 million yearsold) Rhynie chert of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. This discovery hasimplications for dating the origin of this group of fungi, andunderscores the diversity of fungal-plant interactions early in thecolonization of the land.
MOLD MAY YET TOPPLE BUILDING
Barbara McLintock, Vancouver Province, July 23,1999
via Mycofile, Newsletter of the Vancouver Myco. Soc.
VICTORIA - A hole no bigger than a pinheadappears to have led to an outbreak of toxic mold that may lead to awhole wing of a hospital being demolished.
Capital Health Region program manager Bob Myerssays the Stachybotrys mold started to grow in a crawl spacewhen a hot-water pipe sprang a leak. As a "pinhole" leak, it causedno problem to the Gorge Hospital's water supply and it went
undetected, he said. But the leak was on top ofa pipe, which allowed water to spill into the asbestos insulationaround it, letting the whole crawl space grow wetter andwarmer.
"It created the absolutely perfect environmentfor Stachybotrys to grow," said Myers. Officials aren'tquite sure when the leak started, but suspect it may have beenabout March.
Myers said staff complained of a pungent smellin May, but hospital officials thought it came from a leak in theradiator, which was then fixed. The smell went away for a while,but returned stronger than ever this month. More detailedinvestigation revealed the leak in the crawl space, and the blackslimy mold.
Only one room in the Gorge's rehabilitation winghas been found to be contaminated, Myers said, but the whole winghas been sealed off for testing. Dr. Richard Stanwick said allpatients in the wing since March will be contacted to make surethey haven't ended up with any bad reactions from the mold's toxinsor spores.
For most adults, the symptoms would mimicallergies or the flu, he said, and as long as the patients havecompletely recovered, there's no need to worry. More seriousproblems are likely to arise only in those who have allergies orasthma, or whose immune systems are weak.
Question: What tasty edible fungus hasdamaged expensive gathering equipment by exploding?
Answer: Smut fungi (genusUstilago) sporulating on crops have occasionally, duringharvesting, formed clouds of spores that have been triggered bysparks and exploded, ruining expensive harvesting machinery.