SVIMS Metchosin Wilderness Park Foray 2024

Along the trail

SVIMS organized a 2024 spring foray at Metchosin Wilderness Park. About 30 people, including two foray managers (Steve Strybosch and Denise Furst) and two foray leaders (Kem Luther and David Walde), gathered at the Clapham Road entrance on Saturday, April 20, 2024, to spend two hour hunting down fungal fructifications. About a quarter of the group were on their first organized foray.

This was the third consective year for a foray at this season and place. Kem Luther, one of the leaders, handed out a list of about eighty mushrooms that had been identified in the earlier forays. By the end of the day, despite the dryer conditions, participants had found about 18 of the previously seen mushrooms. They also found about seven that were not on the list.

Results from the foray were recorded on iNaturalist with the help of Elora Adamson and Ann McCall, who were especially careful to take multiple photos from many angles and distances. As usual, the exact counts may change as experts from around the world weigh in on the iNaturalist posts. One of the most interesting specimens — probably a species of Inocybe that needs a new name — was vouchered.

Photos by Steven Strybosch.

Kem applies a chemical test (smell)) to the ID of a mushroom
Part of the largest clump of macrofungi seen on the foray--Mica Caps galore

Bryophilous fungi of BC–Randall Mindell–May 14

Mniaecia jungermanniae, a tiny inoperculate ascomycete growing on leafy liverworts of the order Jungermanniales. Photo by Johannes Merz.

SVIMS Monthly Meeting on Tuesday, May 14, 2024.

Place: St Luke’s Hall, 3821 Cedar Hill X Rd, Victoria

Live Meeting with Zoom option. Zoom Link will be emailed to SVIMS members a few days before meeting.

Starts at 7 pm – please don’t arrive before 6:30. Bring mushrooms for ID and display.

Presenter: Randal Mindell

Talk Title “Bryophilous fungi of Coastal British Columbia“

Mosses, liverworts and hornworts are particularly diverse in British Columbia, home to roughly 80% of bryophyte species known to occur in Canada. Despite the abundance of these groups, little is known about the diversity and ecology of the fungi that make their home in and on them. This talk will explore the nature, antiquity, ubiquity and relevance of the relationship between fungi and bryophytes while presenting a mix of historical data and recent observations from the region.

Dr. Randal Mindell is a Comox Valley-based cryptogamic botanist with a particular interest in liverworts and crustose lichens. He completed his B. Sc. at UBC and Ph.D. at the University of Alberta.