Introduction
to
Fungi
and the
Wisconsin
Mycological
Society

The Table of Contents

• How to Look at Fungi
• Introduction
• Spore Color
• Gill Attachment
• The Veil
• Stem Characters
• Other Characters
• Getting Started
• Keys
• Keeping a Record
• Ten Edible Mushrooms
• Learning More
• Mushroom Books
• Thirty Edible Mushrooms
• Ten Poisonous Mushrooms
• Avoiding Mistakes
• Safe Hunting Guidelines
• Equipment for Mushroom Collection
• Poisoning
• The Wisconsin Mycological Society
• WMS Timetable
• Current Directors
• Current Officers
• Honorary Directors

How to Look at Fungi

Introduction

There exist over 70,000 species of fungi, with more being discovered every day! The number of Agarics alone exceeds 5,000! These numbers are huge when compared to, say the 700 or so species of birds in North America and they provide the first clues that identifying mushrooms is more challenging than bird watching. In addition to their vast numbers, the facts that most fungi only fruit for a very short time and are often separated into different species based largely on microscopic differences also indicates some of the difficulties encountered. Yet, in spite of these difficulties (or perhaps because of them) mushroom identification is one of the most enjoyable, satisfying and rewarding pastimes.

So how does one get started in identifying mushrooms? Perhaps first by admitting that you are not going to identify every mushroom you find. You are not even going to identify half of the mushrooms you find without hours and hours of work. Second, with many mushrooms you will have to lower your identification standards and be content to identify the specimen as a poisonous Amanita or a Russula or a member of some other large group or genus of mushrooms. Many of these groups contain hundreds or thousands of species, and even the experts have trouble sorting them out.

But while mushroom identification is not easy, it is possible. Many mushrooms have distinguishing features that set them apart and it is possible to learn most of the common mushrooms that you run into regularly. The key is knowing what to look for.

Keep in mind that the mushroom is nothing more than a fruit, like an apple; the main part of the fungus lies beneath the soil or in the wood. The purpose of the mushroom is to give off spores (microscopic seeds) and it is entirely built around this purpose.

First you need to take the mushroom that you are looking at and put it into the broadest category that you can. Here are seven general categories. Not everything fits neatly into one of these categories but most do. It would be prudent to look through this list and either say to yourself ``Sure, I've seen those'' or else look for these in a mushroom identification book so that you will know them when you see them. [Note that no one group is edible or poisonous.]

Gilled Mushrooms. These are the traditional ``mushrooms'' that one often finds. They have a stem and a cap and if you turn them over you'll see blades, or gills, radiating away from the stem. These provide a lot of surface area for the spores to grow on and be released.

Boletes. These look almost the same as gilled mushrooms, except that when you turn them over there is only a spongy looking surface. When you look closer, this surface is full of holes called pores that are the openings for tubes where the spores develop.

Tooth Fungi. In most cases these have the same basic shape as the gilled mushrooms and boletes (a cap sitting on a stem). The only difference is that they produce their spores on spikes pointing down under the cap.

Shelf Fungi. These are primarily fungi that grow out from wood to form shelves which drop their spores through pores (like boletes). There are often tough and last for many years but can be soft and fleshy.

Puffballs and Earthstars. As the names imply these are ball-shaped fungi or ball-shaped sitting on a star-like base. They produce their spores inside this ball and puff them out when disturbed. You can find these in all sizes from a fraction of an inch to a couple of feet in diameter.

Coral Fungi. These look somewhat like ocean coral. The are usually a few inches tall and grow either on ground or wood with many branches growing upward. The spores are produced on these branches.

Cup Fungi. These are small (up to a few inches in diameter) flat saucer-shaped mushrooms that aren't much interest to the mushroom eater, but can be a fun challenge to the identifier.

Morels. Both true and false morels are related to the cup fungi and appear briefly once a year in the spring.

Now let's concentrate on the gilled mushrooms as an example of the characters of fungi and techniques of identification. Most of what is said will also apply to the boletes.

Spore Color

Gill Attachment

The second most important feature of a gilled mushroom is one that you may not think of with most mushrooms: gill attachment. How are the gills attached to the stem, if at all? There are two main categories for gill attachment: free and attached. When we say a mushroom has free gills we mean that the gills never reach over to touch the stem. This is quite noticeable in older mushrooms as there is a small area around the stem where there are no gills. It's sometimes harder to see in younger mushrooms but still noticeable. The second category, attached gills, is further divided into degrees of attachment: Are the gills just barely attached (adnexed)? Do the gills run straight into the stem (adnate)? Or do the gills run down the stem for a little ways (decurrent)? If this weren't complicated enough, there is one other common possibility where the gills get short like they want to be free, but near the stem are decurrent. These are called notched gills.

So how do you keep all of these attachments straight? Most people just divide gill attachment into four possibilities: Free, Attached, Decurrent or Notched (where it's understood that attached means not decurrent and not notched). One rarely needs a finer distinction.

The Veil

The next group of features that you want to look for comes about as the mushroom is developing. When a mushroom starts growing it tries not to dry out, which is hard for the gills not to do because there is so much surface area. A lot of mushrooms deal with this problem by forming a veil. (This is a thin layer of tissue.) Sometimes this veil covers the entire mushroom (the universal veil) -- sometimes just the cap (a partial veil), and sometimes there are several veils (or layers) that may cover both. When we find the mushroom it is older and in many cases the veil has broken or vanished. Some of the characters that it leaves behind are:

A volva or cup at the base of the stipe. This is where the veil that covered the entire mushroom was attached. It can have several shapes and often these shapes are important in identifying the mushroom to species.

Patches on the top of the cap are remnants of the veil that covered the cap. These can vanish quickly for some kinds of mushrooms and are not usually the main feature in identifying a mushroom, but can sometimes be very important.

A ring on the stem is an important piece of evidence. Like the patches, the weather can take these away rather quickly for some mushrooms, but a ring is very important, because it means that the mushroom developed with a veil around its cap attached to its stem. Sometimes the ring can be thick and sometimes it is just a few darkened threads on the stem.

The veil itself or veil remnants can often be found in many mushrooms at least partially attached to the edge of the cap. Like the ring, sometimes it is thick and sometimes very thin like a spider's web.

All four of these items are important when found. The most common found of these is a ring. But if you see a cup at the base of the stem and free gills, you can immediately place the mushroom into just a few groups: Amanita or Volvariella. Likewise, if you see a spiderweb-like veil, you can say (with a few exceptions) that the mushroom you have is a Cortinarius.

Another comment about rings and veils is that they are good places for spores to get trapped. So by looking closely at the ring or veil, you can often see a dusting of spores and save the trouble of making a spore print. The same is true about leaves under the caps as well as other mushrooms growing up beneath their older siblings.

Stem Characters

Most mushrooms have what we call a fleshy stem. In a few cases, however, it is a thinner, tougher stem. This is usually called a cartilaginous stem. Other mushrooms go the other direction with a big brittle stem that crumbles like damp chalk.

Another very important character of the stem, when it occurs, is the lateral stem, i.e., the stem coming out from the side of the cap. This is usually seen in mushrooms growing on trees.

Other Characters

There are many other characters that are used in mushroom identification -- too many to mention here. A few of the more common things to look for are:

• Bleeding: many mushrooms exude a juice when cut or broken. In particular, one genera, Lactarius, is identified primarily by this feature.
• Bruising: Color changes can be important keys to identifying species.
• Liquefying: One group of mushrooms, the inky caps, have the property that they turn to liquid as part of their spore releasing mechanism.

Getting Started

Keys

So now you know some of the things to look for. But who's going to tell you what they mean? So what if it has attached gills, a ring, and a white spore print. What is it and is it edible? This is where the books come in.

There are two basic kinds of good mushroom books (see the list of mushroom books later in this booklet), those with lots of mushrooms and good illustrations like Lincoff or Phillips, and those which lack either in the quantity of mushrooms or in the quality of illustrations, but which have keys. With the first type of book you are given a lot of choices, but little guidance. Basically you must find a mushroom picture which matches your specimen, then read its description to see if it really is what you have. More often than not the description won't quite match your specimen, for example, the wrong spore color or the wrong location; so you go back to the pictures. On the other hand, a (dichotomous) key is a step-by-step questioning that should take you to the correct mushroom (or close). Here is a typical section from a key.

This is the key to Heboloma (other keys would direct you to this key) from Orson Miller's "Mushrooms of North America" and illustrates some of the common problems in using a key. You often must have both young and older specimens to answer a question. Sometimes the feature that you're looking for isn't always present leading you to doubt any choice made. Quite often when there are two size ranges, your specimen will be right between the two, i.e., what if your Heboloma has a 6.5 cm cap? Another problem here (and a problem of mushroom books in general) is that there are probably over a hundred species of Heboloma and only the most common four are listed. There is a chance that what you've found isn't in the book. Still, even with all of its problems, a good key should be a consideration in choosing a mushroom book.

A useful beginning key is a key to genus. This will tell you that the mushroom you have is a Lactarius for example, but won't tell you what kind of Lactarius. There are a couple of common kinds of keys to genera. One is the dichotomous key like the key above. The other is a pictorial key. Here is a pictorial key to the major genera of gilled mushrooms based on spore color and gill attachment. Choosing the column with the correct spore color and the row with the right gill attachment leads to a suitable section of the array which must be surveyed to find the genus of your mushroom.

Keeping a Record

Keeping a list of the mushrooms you've found, where you've found them and when you've found them will help you learn more about the habits of the mushrooms that you're finding. You will more readily learn their names and remember where and when they come out. It's fun to keep a life list of mushrooms that you've identified. Any small notebook will work.

Another way to record your finds is by writing up a Description Sheet on each mushroom. This provides more details on each mushroom and helps train your identification skills by forcing you to look at the mushroom in detail. The particular group mushrooms that you look at most often may affect what you choose to list on your description sheet. Here is a sample description sheet that you can copy and complete each time that you find a new species of mushroom. You can add to it or keep a list of where and when you've subsequently found the same mushroom.

Ten Edible Mushrooms

Most of the following ten mushroom species are considered to be choice edibles in the common field guides. All are easily recognizable.

1. Morchella esculenta ("morel") -- This unusual pitted grayish to yellow mushroom is many people's favorite collectable edible. It is one of the harbingers of spring and is usually found in May to very early June. A good place to look for them is near dead or dying elms.
2. Grifola frondosa ("hen of the woods") -- This delicious edible typically grows at the bases of oak trees where it forms large clumps resembling the many-layered feathers of a hen. The ``feathers'' are usually grayish-brown with white pores underneath.
3. Agaricus campestris^* ("meadow mushroom") -- This is a wild relative of the common white mushroom found in stores. It can be recognized by its ring and its free gills which are pink when young darkening to chocolate brown in age. It is a firm, meaty mushroom with a white to brown, smooth to fibrillose cap. Typically, it grows in grass and the large smooth caps can often be seen poking out of the ground in yards or along curbs.
4. Cantharellus cibarius^* ("chanterelle") -- This is a golden-colored mushroom with a flat to sunken cap and blunt ridges rather than gills running down the stalk. The odor is distinctive and mellow fruity, somewhat similar to apricots. Chanterelles frequently start to fruit in July.
5. Coprinus comatus^* ("shaggy mane") -- This is one of the distinctive ``inky-cap'' mushrooms whose gills and flesh darken and dissolve into an inky-black mess. Before this happens, though, it is a beautiful white mushroom with shaggy upturned scales. It is commonly found in grassy areas in the fall.
6. Pleurotus ostreatus^* ("oyster mushroom") This is a large, fan-shaped, moist, whitish to tan mushroom with little or no stalk. The widely-spaced gills jutting straight out from high up on a tree trunk often make this mushroom a beautiful spectacle.
7. Hydnum repandum^* ("sweet tooth") -- This is a firm, compact tooth fungus with a buff to orange cap that is often flat-topped and with paler white to yellowish teeth.
8. Hericium coralloides^* ("bear's head tooth") -- This is also a tooth fungus, but does not have the usual stem-cap form. Rather its teeth hang from a cluster of white fleshy branches. It grows on decaying wood.
9. Leccinum insigne/aurantiacum ^*("scaber stalk") -- These are pored, bolete-type mushrooms with orange-brown to reddish-brown caps and dark projections or scabers on the stem. They are usually associated with aspen or birch trees and are quite common. A related species which is also edible is the light gray-brown-capped L. scabrum.
10. Flammulina velutipes^* ("velvet foot" or "velvet stem") -- This is a small firm mushroom that grows in clumps on wood. It is noted for its sticky reddish-yellow cap and dark-brown velvety stem and for the fact that it often can be collected even in cold weather when there are no other edible mushrooms around.

Learning More

Mushroom Books

Here is a list of thirteen mushroom books. Each book has some nice features as well as some drawbacks.

Beginning Field Guides

1. George Barron, Mushrooms of Northeast North America, Lone Pine Publishing, 1999 --one of my favorites, it is informative and beautiful with more than 600 species; no key.
2. Clyde M. Christensen, Common Edible Mushrooms, The University of Minnesota Press, 1943 --black and white photos of 62 common species. (out of print)
3. Booth Courtenay and Harold H. Burdsall, Jr., A Field Guide to Mushrooms and their Relatives, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1982 --short descriptions and small color photos of approximately 334 common Wisconsin mushrooms; no key. (out of print)
4. Orson L. Miller, Jr., Mushrooms of North America, Chanticleer Press, 1978 --good color photos and descriptions of 422 species; contains keys. (out of print)
5. Alexander H. Smith and Nancy Smith Weber, The Mushroom Hunter's Field Guide, The University of Michigan Press, 1980 --photos of and keys to 282 species.

Miscellaneous Books about Mushrooms

1. R. T. Rolfe and F. W. Rolfe, The Romance of the Fungus World, Dover Publications, 1925 --mushroom folklore. (out of print)
2. George W. Hudler, Magical Mushrooms, Mischievous Molds, Princton University Press, 1998 --historical overview of fungi and man, with an emphasis on fungal pathogens.
3. Elio Schaechter, In the Company of Mushrooms: A Biologist's Tale, Harvard University Press, 1998 --well written overview of all things fungal.
4. Sara Ann Friedman, Celebrating the Wild Mushroom, Dodd, Mead & Company, 1986 --sort of a mushroomer's autobiography, whimsical, light reading; contains some recipes. (out of print)
5. Nancy Smith Weber, A Morel Hunter's Companion, TwoPeninsula Press, 1988 --a complete guide to the true and false morels.

Advanced Field Guides

1. David Arora, Mushrooms Demystified, Ten Speed Press, 1979 --a humorous and enjoyable field guide as well as a good source of general information about mushrooms, though it covers primarily West Coast mushrooms; does contain a very good key.
2. Alan E. Bessette, Arleen R. Bessette and David W. Fischer, Mushrooms of Northeastern North America, Syracuse University Press, 1997 --has it all; 1500 species, color photos and a good key to species and a regional nature that covers Wisconsin.
3. Alan E. Bessette, William C. Roody and Arleen R. Bessette, North American Boletes, Syracuse University Press, 2000 --keys to more than 300 boletes.
4. Kent H. McKnight and Vera B. McKnight, A Field Guide to Mushrooms of North America (The Peterson Field Guide Series), Houghton Mifflin Company, 1987 --drawings and good descriptions of approximately 1000 mushrooms and their look-alikes, no key.
5. Gary H. Lincoff, The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1981 --color photos and descriptions of approximately 730 mushrooms and hundreds of look-alikes, no key.
6. Roger Phillips, Mushrooms of North America, Little, Brown & Company, 1991 --comprehensive field guide, covering a large number of species, color photos, Key to genus only. (out of print)

Thirty Edible Mushrooms

To learn to identify thirty mushrooms is a major accomplishment. This list is meant to aid you in knowing what to expect. All of the mushrooms on this list occur regularly in Wisconsin and are good edibles which someone starting out can expect to find and be able to identify with the help of a field guide.

1. Agaricus campestris.^* This is a relative of the common store mushroom that is found on city streets and in meadows in the summer and fall. Be sure that you positively identify it, as it may look vaguely like an Amanita.
2. Boletus edulis.^* The King Bolete. One of the world's favorites. It's usually quite rare, but once in a while is found in quantity. It can be confused with the very bitter (but nonpoisonous) Tylopilus felleus.
3. Calvatia gigantea.^* The Giant Puffball. Make sure that the interior is pure white and not starting to turn yellow.
4. Cantharellus cibarius.^* The apricot--colored chanterelle found quite often in summer.
5. Clavicorona pyxidata.^* This is a small coral mushroom found growing on wood in the summer and fall. The name `corona' refers to the crown that each branch of the coral has at its tip.
6. Coprinus comatus.^* The Shaggy Mane. This is a common fall mushroom coming up shortly after a rain and quickly liquefying to a stem and a black mess.
7. Coprinus micaceus.^* These are small fragile tan mushrooms that grow both on soil and on wood during summer and fall. All Coprinus species are known as inky caps because they turn to ink in age.
8. Craterellus fallax.^* The Black Trumpet (of Death). Despite the name these are nonpoisonous and have a very good flavor. They are, however, very small and you have to be a good looker to find them.
9. Entoloma abortivum. These have many common names: Earth Prunes, Pig Snouts, etc. They are malformed masses (the result of being parasitized by Armillaria) that can be very common in the late fall under maples.
10. Flammulina velutipes.^* `Velutipes' means velvet stem and refers to the hairy black stem on this little mushroom. You can find this growing any time of the year in clusters on dead wood. This can be found growing in the winter (during warm spells) and is often called the Winter Mushroom.
11. Grifola frondosa. The Hen of the Woods. This is a prize fungus because of its size and edibility. It reaches a diameter of one or two feet across and often you find more than one! You find it in the fall growing at the base of oak trees.
12. Hericium^*, all species. These are tooth fungi, growing on wood, without a cap. All are edible and tasty.
13. Hygrophorus russula.^* This is a large pinkish--streaked waxy mushroom. It doesn't have a lot of taste but can sometimes be found in quantity.
14. Hydnum repandum.^* This is a medium-sized pale orangish mushroom with teeth (i.e., spines instead of gills under the cap). It's found on the ground in late summer and fall and is easy to identify: it's orange, has teeth, and is fleshy, not tough. It's taste is very good.
15. Hypsizygus ulmarius.^* This is quite common in the late fall on box elder, but can also be found in the early spring. It is a large-stalked, cream-colored mushroom growing just beyond your reach in wounds of trees.
16. Laccaria ochropurpurea.^* This purple mushroom fades to tan with age, with only the gills remaining purple. Be aware that many poisonous Cortinarius species also have purple on them.
17. Lactarius deliciosus. Lactarius mushrooms exude a `milk' when cut (deliciosus has an orange milk.) This is a good-sized orange mushroom that turns green when bruised or in age.
18. Laetiporus sulphureus.^* The Sulphur Shelf. This is a bright sulphur yellow shelf mushroom that grows in live or dead trees and stumps. A large percentage of the population has an allergic reaction to this mushroom; so be cautious when trying this fungus the first few times.
19. Leccinum^*, all species. As a group Leccinum are known as scaber stalks because of the dark ornamentation on the stalk (called scabers). There are several species of this bolete and all are edible.
20. Lepista nuda.^* Blewits. This is a common pink--purplish--tan mushroom with a wide cap and a short stem. It has a distinctive odor.
21. Lycoperdon perlatum. A common small puffball growing on wood in the fall and late summer. These can be found in quantity.
22. Marasmius oreades.^* The Fairy Ring Mushroom. This is common in summer and fall in lawns. Always make sure that you know what chemicals are used on the lawn before eating. This is considered a very good tasting edible.
23. Morchella augusticeps.^* The Black Morel. This is a smaller, darker and earlier species than the common morel.
24. Morchella esculenta. The Morel. This is America's favorite wild mushroom. It grows in the spring (May), and can be common. It can be found around elm, apple or ash.
25. Oudemansiella radicata. This is a common thin-fleshed mushroom with a wide brown cap and a twisted white stem. It's found in the fall growing almost anywhere. It isn't often found in quantity.
26. Pleurotus ostreatus.^* The Oyster Mushroom. These are cream-colored mushrooms growing on wood. They grow in clusters and their gills extend down their stems.
27. Suillus americanus. These are somewhat sticky bright yellow boletes growing in white pine in the fall. They are small for boletes.
28. Suillus granulatus. These are tan-capped with a light yellow stalk. This is one of the kinds of Suillus without a ring, but it does have brown dots on the stalk.
29. Suillus luteus.^* The Slippery Jack. These are slimy brown capped boletes with a slimy ring found in pine during the fall. They can be quite common.
30. Suillus pictus.^* This is a handsome bolete with a distinctive reddish cap and stem. It has a white cottony veil that leaves a ring.

Ten Poisonous Mushrooms

There are many species of poisonous mushrooms. The list below is by no means inclusive. However, it does point out some of the poisonous mushrooms you are most likely to encounter.

1. Amanita verna/virosa/bisporigera -- These are very similar species of deadly poisonous mushrooms. They are all stately, pure white mushrooms with a ring and a volva. In general, one should learn the features of Amanita and avoid picking them for eating.
2. Galerina autumnalis^* -- This is a small, brown mushroom with a ring growing on logs. It contains some of the same deadly poisons as the Amanita do.
3. Lepiota cristata -- This is a small, woodland mushroom with a whitish cap and reddish-brown scales. In general, small Lepiota-like species should be avoided.
4. Chlorophyllum molybdites -- This mushroom is probably responsible for more poisonings than any other in the United States. It is Lepiota-like and grows in grass, but is distinguished by its light green spore print.
5. Gyromitra esculenta -- Gyromitra are deeply wrinkled to lobe-like fungi which resemble morels in their hollowness and spring growth, but they are poisonous.
6. Inocybe fastigiata -- This mushroom with its golden to brown, conic, fiber-streaked cap and light brown gills is representative of the genus Inocybe, which should be entirely avoided when collecting for food.
7. Amanita muscaria^* -- This is a beautiful, bright yellow mushroom with white spots or patches on its cap and a ring and bulbous base.
8. Panaeolus foenisecii -- This is a thin, fragile brown mushroom. Since it is a common lawn mushroom, it can be dangerous for small children.
9. Omphalotus illudens -- This is a bright orange mushroom that grows in clumps around tree stumps.
10. Russula emetica^* -- This is a common woodland mushroom. It is known by its red cap, white gills and crumbly white stem. It is a member of a large group of Russulas which are hard to distinguish and should be avoided.

Avoiding Mistakes

Safe Hunting Guidelines

1. DO NOT EAT ANYTHING YOU CANNOT POSITIVELY IDENTIFY.
2. Be cautious with white-capped mushrooms or mushrooms with white gills; this eliminates many hard-to-identify species, including several deadly species.
3. Do not eat wrinkled, brain-like, or saddle-shaped mushrooms.
4. Beware of any mushroom with a ring on its stalk or any mushroom that grows out of a cup or has an enlarged base.
5. Avoid LBM's. Species of Little Brown Mushrooms can rarely be determined by non-professionals.
6. Avoid Boletes which have red pore mouths or which bruise blue or taste bitter.
7. Do not eat any puffball that is not pure white and uniform in texture inside.
8. Keep each species that you collect in a separate container.
9. Whenever you eat a new variety, keep a few specimens in the refrigerator. In case of poisoning these can be identified through a poison control center.
10. When eating a variety for the first time, eat only a small amount in case of an allergic reaction.
11. Be aware that some mushrooms cause reactions when consumed with alcohol.
12. Be aware that certain edible mushrooms have nonedible lookalikes, i.e., mushrooms which are similar in appearance, but poisonous.

Mushroom Ethics

Dining Ethics

• You must take responsibility for the wild mushrooms that you eat. Don't blindly take someone else's word on identification or edibility.
• Never try to force wild mushrooms on anyone who is unwilling to eat them.

Picking Ethics

• Do not intentionally trespass on someone else's property.
• Don't destroy habitats.
• Pick only what is necessary for your wants. If you do not want it, leave it intact so that someone else may admire or photograph it, or so that it may grow to produce more.

Identification Ethics

• Be 100% sure of your identification before advising others or eating mushrooms yourself. If you are unsure and are making a guess, emphasize to the person that you really don't know.
• If you know someone who has unknowingly picked a poisonous mushroom, tell them.

Equipment for Mushroom Collection

Basic Necessities

• Basket, pail, box or paper bag: In order to get your mushrooms home in good condition, you should have a rigid container to carry them in. A shallow basket is best.
• Knife: A knife is necessary for digging up the entire mushroom for identification purposes and cutting mushrooms you want to eat.
• Insect repellent: No explanation necessary.
• Roll of wax paper, wax paper bags, or small paper bags: Wrapping mushrooms in wax paper or small bags keeps them separated and helps protect them from being crushed. Never use plastic bags for this purpose except for short periods as they don't give the fungi enough ventilation.

Additional Equipment

• Compass: Indispensable if you become separated from a foray group or you venture into new woods alone.
• Whistle: A whistle carries farther than yelling when you are lost.
• Hiking attire: Dress for the weather and the terrain.
• Magnifying glass and field guide: These aid in field identification of mushrooms.
• Notebook and pen: For recording field observations.
• Small containers: For small/delicate mushrooms --anything from small jars to berry baskets can be used.

Poisoning

If mushroom poisoning is suspected, keep some sample specimens in the refrigerator for identification purposes. Call a poison control center or your local hospital or medical center. The phone number for the poison control center in Milwaukee is 414-266-2222.

The Wisconsin Mycological Society

The Wisconsin Mycological Society is a non-profit group whose main purpose is to educate our members. We do this primarily in two ways: through our winter lecture series and by way of forays during the temperate months. Our members have broad interests ranging from art and photography to scientific studies to culinary. We try to meet these interests as well as possible. If you have any suggestions, feel free to contact any of the directors or officers.

Even though the exact meeting times vary from year to year, as do the locations, here is a general timetable of our activities

WMS Timetable

Current Directors

Current Officers

Honorary Directors

This document was written by Peter Vachuska with the help of many other WMS members.