South Vancouver Island Mycological Society
The 2023 SVIMS President’s Picnic was a big hit this year. It was hosted, as custom dictates, by the current president (Mel Hesz). This time it took place at the home of ex-president Andy MacKinnon. Forty to fifty people showed up at Andy and Mairi’s beautiful property overlooking Metchosin’s Witty’s Lagoon. People brought an amazing variety of creative dishes for the lunch.
This Sunday is our first President’s Picnic, since Covid! This is a lovely event to socialize & share stories. Guests are welcome!
Please remember to bring:
A main meal or dessert for 6 people
Portable chair
Cutlery
Plate/bowl
Mug/cup
Drink of choice
Fungi for identifying or chatting about (not mandatory due to dry season)
Arrival: 11:30am
Location: 504 Witty Beach Road, Metchosin
– Be aware that on a sunny weekend, the beach is busy, and parking can extend up the road.
– You’re welcome to park in the driveway to drop off chairs, food etc, but cannot remain parked there. Please do NOT park on lawn, as it’s a septic field, which would be damaged by doing so!
– House on right side, at very end of road, next to trail entrance to Witty’s Beach.
– BBQ available, as is kitchen for food prep, heating up etc.
Times-Colonist article on Death Cap mushrooms (Amanita phalloides) in and around Oak Bay. Ex SVIMS president Andy MacKinnon interviewed. Andy also did an interview on Death Cap mushrooms for CFAX 1070 radio.
Great article in the new Macleans about a couple setting up a truffle farm in the Okanagan. SVIMS ex-president Shannon Berch provides the couple with helpful advice.
On the walk, SVIMS members had the opportunity to check out lichens in a rare and endangered Garry oak ecosystem. Volunteers, organized by the late Moralea Milne, have been keeping the Devonian Park ecosystems pristine by removing invasives.
Juliet talked during the walk about lichen characteristics and habitat. Participants were inspired by Juliet’s obvious enthusiasm.
On Saturday, May 6, a group of mushroom enthusiasts from Salt Spring (their Facebook page) held a foray and invited several SVIMS people to join them.
A group of seven SVIMS people tried to board the morning Schwatz Bay ferry to Salt Spring–only to find out that the morning ferries had been cancelled. However, they heard that the ferries were running a free pilot boat service to Salt Spring from the neighbouring Government Wharf. Making their way to the small dock, the small group were all able to fit into the 9:00 am run of the pilot boat and arrive in time for the foray.
Top photo by Mel Hesz, bottom photo by David Walde.
The group of SVIMS people and Salt Springers surveyed a second-growth forest on Cranberry Road. Thanks in part to the recent rains, there were lots of mushrooms to see. About 40 species were logged on iNaturalist. Some of the more interesting finds are described below. (Click on the pictures to see the iNaturalist entries.)
Mycena aciculata, the orange bonnet. Thanks to Ian Gibson for cueing us into this one. Looks like an Atheniella, but it’s not. It’s still listed as Mycena, but DNA studies suggest that it doesn’t belong in the Mycena genus either.
Lachnum virgineum, the hairy fairy cup. Thanks to Ian Gibson for this great stacked closeup photo.
Presumably the mushroom is called “virgineum,” virgin, because it is white, and virgins wore white at weddings. Except the theory doesn’t hold water. The mushroom was first named “virgeneum” in the late 1700s, and brides didn’t start wearing white until Queen Victoria popularized the tradition in the 1830s.
Trametes gibbosa. As common as fleas on the mainland, but we don’t often see this large, lumpy, white polypore on the islands.
Bertia moriformis. This unusual and not often documented asco is known as “wood mulberry.” Tyson Ehlers helped us ID this one.
Pseudoplectania nigrella. Round spores (see spore pic on the iNaturalist observation) make this one an easy ID. Without microscopy, though, there would other alternatives to consider.
Cudonia circinans has the funny common name “redleg jellybelly.” Reviewing their records, SVIMS members established in 2022 that this was a spring as well as a fall mushroom. It’s truly a club–nothing under the head but bald tissue. This asco club, by the way, has crazy-long ascospores. See the Kuo writeup on this species for a picture of the ascospores.
Juliet Pendray is well known to most of you. Besides being an active member of SVIMS, she was an active member of Vancouver Mycological Society before moving here with James Holkko.
She is going to share lichens with all of us.
This is a zoom-only meeting – members should have received a link from our SVIMS President on April 24. 6:45 pm to socialize. 7 pm to start.