Mary's Musings and More: MUSHROOMS Revisited

Last weekend it was all about the mushrooms! The Los Angeles Mycological Society, (LAMS) held their annual mushroom fair on Sunday at the Arboretum in Arcadia. We had world renowned mycologists from out of town visiting L.A. to participate and assist with our surveys. Gary Lincoff, from New York, the author of "National Audubon Society's Field Guide to Mushrooms" and more recently "The Joy of Foraging" joined us. I met Gary last year in February when he came out for the mushroom fair.

Gary teaches me about mushrooms....the start of a new hobby!

Also, the Salzmans, Manny (age 94) and Joanne (age 84) and their son Jason joined us from Denver.

Manny at the 2012 Telluride Mushroom Festival

The Salzmans are the founders of the Telluride Mushroom Festival, which I attended last summer. (see previous blog entry.)   The dates for the 2013 Festival are August 15 - August 18. Definitely worth the trip to Telluride and the experience!

We went looking for mushrooms on Friday at Paramount Ranch, in the Santa Monica Mountains.    We were not very optimistic when we started out. However to our great surprise, we found nearly 2 dozen mushroom species!

The weekend highlight for me was our Saturday mushroom survey in Griffith Park. There has not been a documented survey of the mushrooms in Griffith Park for 100 years!   This was truly an exciting event.   With Gary's help, we were able to identify nearly 50 species of mushrooms!   Who knows how many species we might have on a "good" (rainy) year. There is much exploring and research to be done, but it is thrilling.

Turkey Tail ( a polyspore) Trametes versicolor was quite abundant. It is located on fallen trees, and helps them to decay and breakdown.