About Me

I admit it, I'm obsessed with fungi. And the weirder a fungus is, the better. Though I am not beyond eating the choice ones, when I go out into the woods in central Ontario, blindly focussing on dinner is not what I get a kick out of. What I get a kick out of is finding oddities and rarities, being startled by awesome beauty and gag-worthy grotesques, and being stumped by enigmas that can take hours or days or a couple of years to put a name to. Every foray is a treasure hunt, even in the depths of a Canadian winter.

So the goal of this blog is to share a bit of the phenomenal diversity of the mycological world I've come across while poking around in the woods, and to encourage others to take pleasure in this diversity beyond what can be harvested for the table. Though I'll occasionally highlight edibles or commonly found species, my main focus will be fungi that I think are more fun. Or neglected. Or that have an interesting ecological story to tell. Or that are just plain weird.

10 comments:

  1. I really enjoy your posts. What are you using for your micoscope work? I recently took a class on the Ascomycota and am hooked, but most of the info I need for ID is beyond a hand lens.

    I am a member of CVMS in Connecticut and plan on attending the NEMF foray this year (2014) in Maine. I was not able to make it to NEMF in 2013 in Rimouski, Canada last year, unfortunately. I am totally an amateur, but my resources (Gary Lincoff and Roz Lowen, and the new Ascomycete Fungi of North America book, among others) keep me salivating for more!

    Thanks so much for posting.

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  2. Thanks so much! Aren't the ascos addictive? It's like a treasure hunt every time I go into the woods.
    I'm using an old Orthoplan microscope - it has its challenges, but the optics are fantastic!
    Cheers!

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  3. Jan: Do you mind if Boise State uses your orange rust leaf to illustrate a lesson about fungi? It would appear in a nonprofit biology text of a limited run.
    Todd Shallat, Boise State, tshalla@boisestate.edu

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  4. Jan, I keep ending on your beautiful webpage googling for fungi details, thanks so much! Keep up the great work, all the best, Daniel
    www.Mushroaming.com

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  5. This is by far the best mushroom blog I've ever seen. Your dedication to tracking down details and following the trail as far as possible is exemplary, and the photos are incredibly useful and informative. Thank you!

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  6. Hey can you help me identify this a mushroom growing out an interior wall. Need help

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  7. Just found your blog tonight. Thank you for what you share. I am enjoying it.

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