SVIMS Monthly Meeting Thursday, September 5, 2024.

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NEW General Meeting day of the week and time:

7pm arrivals; 7:15pm start. 

1st Thursday of the month, September to May except January. 

Guests welcome! Bring your mushrooms to be identified.  

St Luke’s Hall

3821 Cedar Hill Cross Rd, Victoria, BC V8P 2M6

SVIMS The Next Generation

An opportunity for SVIMS members to hear from and be inspired by the mycological passions of fellow SVIMS members

And our first speakers of the new season are

Ann  McCall, Mohannah Singh, and Sarah Riley and Josh Wayborn

Ann McCall

“Sequencing Local Mushrooms”

Ann McCall is a mycology enthusiast with a particular interest in taxonomy and ITS barcoding. She joined SVIMS in 2022 to connect with a community of like-minded individuals while advancing her understanding of mycology.

With a background in engineering and a life-long passion for the sciences, Ann finds joy in deepening her knowledge of fungi while actively contributing to citizen science. She regularly participates in citizen science initiatives aimed at documenting all macrofungi in North America, and hopes to make DNA sequencing more accessible to SVIMS members.

When she’s not exploring forests in search of mushrooms, Ann can be found baking tasty treats or adventuring in her self-converted campervan.

Mohanna Singh

“The Process of Mushroom Photography”

Mo is a third year student studying forest biology at the University of Victoria. She has been apart of SVIMS since 2019, and has been doing nature photography since 2017. Her dad and older brother taught her to use a camera, and through lots of trial and error she has slowly improved over the years. She enjoys finding unique species of fungi all over Vancouver Island to photograph. Alongside photography, Mo enjoys reading, writing, and painting.

Sarah Riley and Josh Wayborn

“Ophiocordyceps”

We caught mushroom fever around 2015, having no formal mycology training, we began learning about and hunting mushrooms every chance we got. We moved to Vancouver Island in 2020, largely to chase a longer mushroom season than Manitoba has.
Josh was so fortunate as to come across the first of the Ophiocordyceps on a Western Carpenter ant in 2021 and we later found a large number of specimens at that site.
Treasure hunting for edibles in the forest has been a deep passion for both of us and we hope to have many more mushroom hunting years ahead of us.

Bryophilous fungi of BC–Randall Mindell–May 14

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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.

Monthly Meeting April 9 Marty Kranabetter (SVIMS Members Only)

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SVIMS Monthly Meeting April 9, 2024 at

St Luke’s Hall, 3821 Cedar Hill X Rd, Victoria, 6:30pm – 9:30pm
Live Meeting with Zoom option
Start at 7 pm – please don’t arrive before 6:30.
Zoom Link will be emailed to SVIMS members a few days before meeting.

Our presenter will be Marty Kranabetter. Below his photo, see more about his talk and his background. His talk will be

Recent findings on the ecology of ectomycorrhizal  fungi across coastal British Columbia

Marty Kranabetter photo

 Forests along coastal British Columbia face a wide range in growing conditions, from very poor soils (low in nitrogen or phosphorus availability) to highly productive sites. The capacity of trees to thrive in these contrasting ecosystems is dependent upon their symbiotic fungi (‘ectomycorrhiza’). In this presentation I will review recent studies that demonstrate how communities of ectomycorrhizal fungi are adapted to our local soils. In addition, I will summarize ongoing studies into the diversity of ectomycorrhizal fungi, and how forest management practices can help retain the impressive fungal biodiversity of our coastal landscapes.  

Marty Kranabetter is the West Coast regional soil scientist with the BC Ministry of Forests and is located in Victoria. Marty’s areas of interest are soil ecology (especially ectomycorrhizal fungi), biodiversity conservation, carbon sequestration, and forest nutrition/productivity. Marty is a member of the provincial soil science group undertaking North American-wide studies on compaction and site organic matter removal (the Long-term Soil Productivity Study).  Most recently he has also been examining nitrogen and phosphorus deficiencies inherent to coastal forests and their interactions on conifer nutrition and forest productivity. 

Monthly Meeting March 12 Lorena Polovina (SVIMS Members Only)

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Mycological Futures: Exploring Biofabrication in Architectural Applications


SVIMS monthly meeting  Tuesday, 12 March, 2024
St Luke’s Hall, 3821 Cedar Hill X Rd Victoria 6:30pm – 9:30pm. In person and on Zoom. 7:00 pm start, arrivals no earlier than 6:30 pm, ending 9:30 pm.  Zoom link was sent to members by email on March 8.
– refreshments
– bring mushrooms for Show and Tell
Our speaker will be Lorena Polovina –

Mycological Futures: Exploring Biofabrication in Architectural Applications

Lorena Polovina is an interdisciplinary architecture student with a civil engineering background and professional experience in building science and structural design. She is a leader in the embodied carbon space and biogenic material research. She is currently a researcher at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Biogenic Architecture Lab where she researches mycelium biocomposites and their application as thermal insulators to replace toxic materials such as polystyrene. She was also a UBC Sustainability Scholar where she authored the “Rebuilding Better Guide” to inform local government leaders and policymakers on climate change mitigation and adaptation through a low carbon resiliency lens. 

Monthly Meeting Feb 6 Paul Kroeger

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Come to our monthly meeting, either via Zoom or in person at St Luke’s Hall, 3821 Cedar Hill Cross Rd,  Victoria BC.

7:00 pm start, arrivals no earlier than 6:30 pm, ending 9:30 pm.  Zoom link sent to members by email February 5. 

Refreshments and in-person mushroom identification at St Luke’s Hall.

Paul Kroeger will speak about Urban Mushrooms.  Paul has regaled us every February for some years. Learning and entertainment at its best.

There’s Fungus Among Us: Urban “weed” mushrooms and immigrant fungi

A look at some mushrooms growing in urban areas in landscaping and under street trees, fungi that often have come from elsewhere. Humans create habitats that are home to many common and some unusual fungi, adding diversity, beauty and interest to our city surroundings.

(About 110 slides)

I look forward to visiting all the SVIMers and looking for mushrooms in February.

Paul Kroeger with boletes edit

Paul Kroeger has studied mushrooms for over forty five years and is a founding member of the Vancouver Mycological Society. He’s considered a leading expert in field identification of mushrooms of western Canada and has made a special study of “little brown mushrooms” including magic mushrooms and their relatives. He’s been involved in many projects and studies about diverse aspects of mushrooms; gaining knowledge about fungal biology and ecology, and biochemistry of toxic, hallucinogenic, medicinal and edible mushrooms. Years of experience create unique insights and understanding of fungal life-ways and interactions in temperate ecosystems.

Kroeger has worked at the University of British Columbia researching the biochemistry of medicinal mushrooms. He is a major contributor to the mycological herbarium collections in the Beaty Biodiversity Museum at UBC and has been a research associate of UBC Department of Botany for many years. He’s also contributed significant collections to DAOM Herbarium in Ottawa and DAVFP Herbarium in Victoria. He is a regular consultant for the British Columbia Drug and Poison Information Centre, and various other agencies concerned with mushroom poisonings and fungi in human and animal health.

Paul Kroeger has many times served as President of the Vancouver Mycological Society. He published with other mycologists in 2012 The Outer Spores: Mushrooms of Haida Gwaii a book based on a five-year study. He’s considered an entertaining and informative skilled speaker, who presents illustrated talks on subjects such as general mycology, basic mushroom identification, magic mushrooms, poisonous mushrooms, and more.

Monthly Meeting Dec 5 — Daniel Winkler

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Please join us for our December 2023 SVIMS meeting at St. Luke’s Cedar Hill, 3821 Cedar Hill Cross Road, Victoria.

Meeting details. We suggest 6:45pm arrival for a 7 pm meeting. This meeting is in-person only–no simultaneous online broadcast. (A short-term recording, only accessible by active SVIMS members, will later be available on this website.)

Foray. A foray with the speaker will take place on Dec 6. Time and location TBA.

Talk Title: “Fungal Fruits of the Forest – Edible Mushrooms in the PNW and Beyond”

Talk summary: The Pacific Northwest may be the richest region in the Western Hemisphere for great edible mushrooms. Choice edibles–Chanterelles, Hedgehogs, Matsutake, King Boletes, Oysters, Conifer Bearhead, and Cauliflower mushroom–are fairly easy to identify. There is also a variety of often-overlooked mushrooms in our woods that are superb edibles, such as Sweetbread Mushroom, Conifer Woodtuft, and White Coral Fungus. In this richly illustrated presentation, Daniel will help us learn to identify, collect, and prepare many great edible mushrooms.

Speaker bio: Daniel grew up collecting and eating wild mushrooms in the Alps. For the last 27 years, he has been living in the US Pacific Northwest. He shares his enthusiasm as a mushroom educator, photographer, and guide on his mushroaming.com website. Daniel recently published Fruits of the Forest – Field Guide to Pacific Northwest Edible Mushrooms. (It will be available at the talk.) This 400-page, gorgeously illustrated book, which focuses on the edible mushrooms of the PNW, distills a lifetime of mushroom hunting from around the world. Daniel previously published a series of fold-out field guides: Edible Mushrooms of the PNW, Edibles of California (both by Harbour Publishing), Amazon Mushrooms, and Medicinal Mushrooms of North America.  He has also published the MycoCard set “Boletes of Western North America.” His ethno-mycological cordyceps research in Tibet and other Asian locations has been featured in National Geographic, New York Times, NPR, and BBC World Service.

Monthly Meeting by Zoom Tues. September 12, 2023

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Shannon Adams is our speaker for the evening. Her topic:

Cortinarius 101 – Identifying the Genus, Conservation & Edibility.

More information is below her photo.

This is a zoom-only meeting – members should have received a link from our SVIMS President.  

6:45 pm to socialize. 7 pm to start.

Do you love learning about mushrooms but think ‘Cortinarius’ is too hard? It doesn’t have to be that way! Shannon will help you recognize distinctive features of Cortinarius and how to differentiate them from common ‘lookalikes’, and then take you on a rich visual tour to appreciate species diversity. During the talk you will get to know some of our most notable Cortinarius ‘celebrities’ and have new resources for ID when you find these diverse and beautiful species.

Shannon Adams is a User Researcher in the tech industry who has a passion for the genus Cortinarius. When she emigrated from Australia 20+ years ago she was struck by the diversity and beauty of Cortinarius species she saw in the Washington Cascades, and started trying (and failing) to identify them. For the past 6 years, she has been collecting and documenting Cortinarius species and has over 1,200 collections in her personal herbarium.

In 2021 she led the publication of a new Cortinarius species – Cortinarius rufosanguineus – and has recently worked with other Cort experts to describe three additional species she will introduce to us. Shannon is here to spread her love of the Cortinariaceae and to give you resources to help you get to know BC species.  

Links: https://nacorts.com and see also Cortinarius on iNaturalist.