Mushroom Discovery Lecture and Workshop
Learn about Mycology, the study of Mushrooms, at the SLO Botanical Garden with Christian Schwartz!
Christian Schwarz is a mushroom enthusiast and taxonomist and community science advocate from Santa Cruz, the land of milk (caps) and honey (mushrooms). He studied at UCSC, and now spends his time photographing, teaching about, and making scientific collections of macrofungi. He is coauthor of “Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast”, and is slowly building a mycoflora for Santa Cruz County. Fungi satisfy his curiosity with their seemingly endless forms (from the grotesque to the bizarre to the sublime). He has travelled in search of fungi throughout the United States, as well as Central America, Indonesia, Borneo, and Europe. Besides mushroom taxonomy and mycofloristics, he’s an excitable birder and passionate about community science, particularly the use of iNaturalist.
Hourly Schedule
February 17
- 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
- Lecture
- Making Scents of Fungi, from Stench to Perfume If you've ever gone on a walk with an old-time mushroom picker, you've probably noticed that they often lift mushrooms to their noses as soon as they pick them... Why is that? Besides being intriguing, alluring, and surprising, aromas can be extremely important clues for identification. Come take an olfactory tiptoe through the world of fungi! This lecture is suitable for anyone with an interest in mushrooms!
February 18
- 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
- Workshop (SOLD OUT)
- A First Dive Into the World of Fungi: Fungi are a megadiverse group of organisms, not only in terms of species but in their range of form and appearance, the spatial and temporal scales they inhabit, and their ecological roles. We'll take a plunge into their realm, and after getting our bearings about their basic structure and biology, we'll ponder some of their complexities and end up even deeper among their mysteries. Major Groups and Genera The easiest way to get your footing in the world of mushroom identification is to become proficient in recognizing basic form groups, even if you don't know what their names are yet. Getting to know the essential groups like the back of your hand will significantly cut down the time you'll spend using keys or searching online references to reach a species-level ID. In this part of the session we'll take a tour of some of the absolute 'must-know' genera and form groups. We will also present a demonstration and sampling of edible mushrooms during our lunch break on Saturday!
February 19
- 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
- Workshop (SOLD OUT)
- Break it on Down: Making Sense of Genera As a beginner in the world of mushroom identification, your first job is to learn to recognize the form groups and most common genera of mushrooms; on the other hand, the task of species-level identification occupies expert mycologists for the rest of their lives. But in between these extremes, students make headway by learning to break down genera they are already familiar with into manageable chunks. Sure, you know what a Cortinarius is, and of course, everyone knows how to recognize Amanita and boletes and Russula... but what truly defines each of these groups? What do the extremes of variation look like within each one, and how can we make some sense of the diversity within them? We'll practice structuring species into sub-genus level groups to find handholds that we can build on over time. Soon enough you'll find that you already have a good idea of likely identifications before you go looking in field guides or online references – a major step in your development as a mushroom identifier! We will continue using keys in Mushrooms Demystified and Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast to identify our finds.
February 20
- 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
- Field Trip (REGISTRATION CLOSED)
- Foray on private property off-site, and discussion of finds back at the SLO Botanical Garden. This field trip is only available to those attending the full weekend program, and will consist of additional identification work for beginners and intermediate identifiers. Please note that carpooling to the location and back to the garden is heavily encouraged, due to limited parking at the off-site location.