South Vancouver Island Mycological Society
7 pm – doors open
7:15-7:30 – meeting begins
3821 Cedar Hill X Rd, Victoria BC
A Conversation with a Chef turned Mushroom Farmer, Robin Jackson.
A discussion about gourmet mushroom cultivation, truffles, mycelium foods, and the evolution out of the kitchen and into the laboratory.
SVIMS held its first club foray of 2025 in Metchosin Wilderness Park, a site of several previous spring outings. About 30 people gathered at the Clapham Road entrance on Saturday, March 30, 2025, to spend two hours hunting down fungal fructifications. About a quarter of the group were on their first organized foray.
This was one of SVIMS earliest spring outings. Still, by the end of the day, the group had found about 30 species of mushrooms, many of which would only have appeared in the last week. The observations were recorded on iNaturalist. Several of the specimens were vouchered for future sequencing.
Three of the more interesting and fun finds are listed in this post. (Click on the pictures to go to the iNaturalist records.)
The first issue of the new NAMA Mycophile magazine is out, and it has an informative article by one of SVIMS own, our ex-president, Dr. David Walde. The article is entitled “Medicinal Mushrooms: Where We Were, Where We Need to Be and How to Get There in 2025.” It begins on p. 45 of the online magazine. The article contains many useful links to websites discussing aspects of using mushrooms medicinally.
Look immediately below this notice for details about the Monthly Meeting and Presentation by Kem Luther and Andy MacKinnon.
On the Membership Page, you will find a link to an upcoming presentation of the MycoConsortium about Mary Elizabeth Banning, an under appreciated mycologist of the mid-1800s. The presentation will be on March 13 at 7:30 pm. You can also read there about the speaker, who is Dr. Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian, Curator of Mycology at the New York State Museum and a professor of biology. The membership page also has many videos of past meetings and past MycoConsortium presentations, and an introduction to DNA Sequencing.
Look immediately below this notice for details about the Monthly Meeting and Presentation by Kem Luther and Andy MacKinnon.
On the Membership Page, you will find a link to an upcoming presentation of the MycoConsortium about Mary Elizabeth Banning, an under appreciated mycologist of the mid-1800s. The presentation will be on March 13 at 7:30 pm. You can also read there about the speaker, who is Dr. Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian, Curator of Mycology at the New York State Museum and a professor of biology. The membership page also has many videos of past meetings and past MycoConsortium presentations, and an introduction to DNA Sequencing.
The March meeting this year (Thursday, 7:00 pm, March 6 at St. Luke’s Hall, 3821 Cedar Hill Cross Road, Victoria) will be “The Year in Mushrooms.”
Andy MacKinnon and Ann McCall will be doing a slide presentation about discoveries, changes, and surprises in the BC mushroom scene over the last eighteen months. They will chat about some of the most interesting local finds and about the bleeding edge (it hurts!) of what is what is happening in taxonomy and sequencing.
A hybrid meeting, both in person and online. Bring along any spring mushrooms you want to show or discuss.
7 pm start
Zoom only due to weather, members will receive a link
A Presentation by Paul Kroeger
Paul has spoken to our club many times before, often in February. He is always entertaining and informative. Look below his photo to find out more about him. Paul’s presentation will be
Mushroom Misadventures
Mushroom cases with poison control BCCDC / DPIC. This is a review of interesting cases that show ways people get into trouble eating mushrooms, problems in identifying what people have eaten and some interesting observations and lessons on how to avoid illness from eating wild mushrooms.
Paul Kroeger has studied mushrooms for over fifty years and is a founding member of the Vancouver Mycological Society (VMS). Paul served as President of VMS for a few years, and is currently President of The Pacific Northwest Key Council. He is a major contributor to the mycological herbarium collections in the Beaty Biodiversity Museum at UBC and 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. He coauthored, with Bryce Kendrick, Oluna Ceska and Christine Roberts, The Outer Spores: Mushrooms of Haida Gwaii published in 2012 based on a five-year study.