THE NEWSLETTER OF THE WISCONSIN MYCOLOGICAL SOCIETY June 2000 Volume 17 Number 2 1 MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT by Chuck Soden 2 UPCOMING EVENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS 3 FEBRUARY MEETING REPORT by Colleen Vachuska 4 MARCH WMS MEETING by Alan Parker 5 MYCOBRIEFS by Peter and Colleen Vachuska 6 BOLETUS VINACEOBASIS AND ROXANAE by Steve Nelsen 7 ANOTHER PIECE OF WISCONSIN MYCOLOGICAL HISTORY by Dr. Alan Parker 8 RECIPE: CABBAGE AND BOLETUS PATTIES WITH SAUCE by Greta Menka 9 TULA ERSKINE: 1907--2000 by Colleen Vachuska MEMORIES OF TULA MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT Spring has already come and gone. Morels are tucked away either dried, frozen or consumed. I hope everyone was successful enough to at least get a taste. Our annual picnic which is coming up this June 17, will again be a great time for all. Bring a dish to pass; the food is always excellent. The club takes care of beer, brats and soda. Some of our members may think that now that the spring morels are done, that there is nothing to do till fall. Right? Wrong! There should be chanterelles coming up soon, perhaps even in early July. Sometimes there are some to be found at John Steinke's foray, which is coming up this July 29. Our luck at the midsummer foray varies with the weather; but even if we find only a handful of specimens, John is interesting and informative to talk with. That foray is followed by the photo foray on August 13, which is always a beautiful hike and a chance to talk with some good fungal photographers; sometimes we even collect something to eat. Before the June picnic, try to give some thought to new and exciting picking spots for the fall foray season. Also, please let me or any board member know of your interest in any possible forays in the Madison or La Crosse areas. We have been considering setting up a foray in that area if there is some interest. In the next month or so before the summer mushroom season really takes off, spend some time getting familiar with a good mushroom guide. A little study now will make it easier to identify mushrooms in the fall. We have had some good book reviews in past newsletters to help you make a selection. Let's get in shape mentally and hit those mushrooms all season long. Not just morels in the spring and honeys in the fall. Enjoy mushrooms all summer, too. Look through your field guides and learn what mushrooms there are to find at different times of the year. They are out there and so is the challenge of finding and identifying them. by Chuck Soden UPCOMING EVENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS June 17 (Saturday) -- Annual WMS Picnic at Falk Park July 29 (Saturday) -- Summer Foray with John Steinke August 13 (Sunday) -- Photo Foray with Chuck Fonaas and Ray Llanas All members should have received flyers with directions for the above events. T-Shirts: WMS T-shirts will probably be available at the June picnic for those of you that have ordered one. There will also be a few extras available for sale. Contact John Fetzer if you would like to order or reserve a T-shirt. Dues Reminder: We know it's a bit early to be thinking about dues for the year 2001, but please plan on paying your dues for next year by January 1st so that the WMS does not have to send out reminders. FEBRUARY MEETING REPORT Tom Volk, associate professor in the biology department at UW-La Crosse, drove all the way from La Crosse to present the February 6, 000 lecture. And the way it worked out, this lecture was probably a first in WMS history. As Tom explained that evening, when he was originally invited to speak several months before, no one asked him what topic he wanted to talk on. So he had plenty of time to think about it and ask around, and the idea of having a "virtual foray" came up. While this would not make sense for every speaker, it did make sense for Tom who has a large collection of fungal images put on computer. (As he explained in his talk he has not shown a regular slide in class in his past 21/212 years of teaching.) So Tom presented us with an hour of finding mushrooms by somewhat random "point and click" on the screen A virtual foray has the advantage over a real foray in that you can "find" the mushrooms you know more about. And Tom in fact used this venue to talk about mushrooms that he has researched such as Amillaria mellea, Laetiporus sulphureus, and Morchella species. It also enables you to "find" the more interesting fungi such as the "insect destroyer", Entomophthora coronata. This is a fungus that attacks flies and grows in their brains. Tom had this happen to a fly on his window and the fungus made the fly climb up the window, spreading its spores in the process. Also, not having a limited lecture topic to work with, Tom was able to give interesting tidbits on a variety of other fungi and tell stories from a recent trip to Israel. Tom also drew upon his popular Fungus of the Month web page. The February FOTM was Schizophyllum commune, a normally not particularly interesting fungus which has the possibly interesting feature of having something like 28,000 different mating types. Evidently ABC News got wind of this story and called up Tom, wanting to possibly do a story on "sex and slime molds" for Valentine's Day. This story probably didn't materialize, but it was a close call for fungi nonetheless. We also learned during the talk that Tom is working on a new field guide. It will have 1000 species on 500 pages and will include keys for identification. There will also be an accompanying CD-rom with more species. The book should be out in a couple of years, Tom says. Thanks, Tom, for the interesting lecture, and we eagerly look forward to your new book. by Colleen Vachuska MARCH WMS MEETING Dr. Steve Nelsen came from Madison on 14 March to present another in a continuing series of lectures on higher fungi. These lectures, and hopefully there will be more of them, have two great features. They are illustrated with exceptionally high quality slides, and there's an abundance of information for people at all levels of ID experience. Steve provided a handout covering all the genera (with Latin names) in his talk, and followed this outline during the slides. The general theme was Chanterelles and Coral Fungi, and a large number of species in at least 15 genera were illustrated and discussed. Many of the species covered occur in WI, but examples were included from MI and The Great Smoky Mountains Park. Species of Lentaria, Sparassis, Physalacria, and Eocronartium were among the more unusual fungi covered. One of the most valuable aspects of Steve's lectures is that he often shows slides of different developmental stages -- immature, mature, and over the hill -- of the same species. It's fascinating, as well as educational, to see how basidiocarps of a species look significantly different at various ages. It also serves to reinforce one of the problems with field guide photos -- in many fleshy fungi it is impossible to choose one illustration as truly representative of variation within a species. Once again, members enthusiastically enjoyed a cold winter evening viewing the beauty of nature within the fungal kingdom. Sincere thanks to Steve for another excellent slide program. by Alan Parker MYCOBRIEFS by Peter and Colleen Vachuska * Odd Symbiotic Relations: In Malaysia, Shoko Sakai and her colleagues have found perhaps the first instance of a tree depending almost entirely on a fungus for pollination and survival. The chempedak tree, Artocarpus integer, is a close relative of the jackfruits in the mulberry family and produces edible fruits about 30 centimeters long. The Cheonephora fungus attacks the male flowers of the chempedak tree. The main pollinators are two species of gall midges. When Sakai checked these midges, they were covered in pollen, but their stomachs contained not pollen, nor nectar (the blossoms produce none), but only fungus. This is perhaps the only case where the plant depends on the fungus to reward pollinators. On a side note, fungi do play a role, though not as dramatic a one, in the pollination of the arrow arum, Peltandra virginica. Here a rust fungus, which attacks the arrow arum, also attracts pollinators which feed on it, but instead of being the main reward, the fungus seems just to provide a snack before the flower opens for the main course. ("Tree pollination needs male-only rot," Science News, March 18, 2000) * Matching Mushroom against Mushroom for Mole: In the last five years, Brazilian cacao yields have dropped 25%. Cacao is the bean from which cocoa and chocolate are made, and Brazil was the world's second leading exporter. The reason for the decline is a small pink fan-shaped mushroom, Crinipellis perniciosa, called the witches'-broom mushroom for the clustered straw-like twigs that develop on infected branches. It destroys the cacao beans. Scientists observed that some Crinipellis specimens were being attacked by a bright green fuzzy fungus which turned out to be Trichoderma virde. After investigating its potential as a biological control, researchers began cultivating this Trichoderma and this past fall began offering cacao growers experimental sprays for treating blighted trees. There is already some indication that it's cutting back on the incidence of witches'-broom, but growers should not expect sudden/dramatic results. ("Cocoa yields are mushrooming --- downward," Science News, March 18, 2000) * Life on a Leaf: The May 2000 issue of Natural History magazine has a nice little article on fungal life on a leaf, excerpted from the book, Autumn: A Season of Change, by Peter Marchand. Most of us are familiar with the problem of plant pathogenic fungi attacking leaves or saprophytic fungi feeding on decaying leaves on the forest floor. However, the article presents the case that there are many more innocuous ways for leaves to play host to fungi. Throughout the life of a healthy leaf, it will be occupied by a succession of different fungi depending on who is best able to adapt to the conditions brought about by changing seasons and weather. In very early spring, there are several species of yeast that can "take refuge within the buds and shoots of deciduous trees". As the leaves unfurl, fungal spores carried by wind and water arrive on the scene. Some of the most successful of these early invaders are Ascomycetes such as Cladosporium herbarum which can grow well even at extreme temperatures. Other leaf colonizers that can grow quickly under relatively poor conditions include species of Penicillium and Fusarium. By the time most tree leaves have matured, they carry several thousand fungal spores per square inch. Both leaf and fungi can benefit from this cohabitation. Though a healthy fresh leaf looks fairly clean, it actually contains many organic particles such as pollen, spores and nutritious materials that leach from the leaf's epidermal cells that can provide food for fungi. In turn, the leaf can benefit from the insecticidal or the antibiotic properties of some fungi which may curb more pathogenic fungi from attacking the leaf. Unfortunately, many of the fungal spores that arrive on a leaf are not able to survive there for long. Even though organic materials continue to accumulate on a leaf as it ages, there may be intense competition among the fungi for limited nutrients. Also, the summer weather with its extreme heat and thunderstorms poses new challenges for the fungi. Heavy rains could easily wash spores off a leaf, so to counter this possibility, some of the fungi secrete sticky sheaths that help them hang on, or others encase themselves in thick-walled structures. Nonetheless, by late summer, fungal spore production is peaking and more and more spores are landing upon the leaves. Then the cooler weather and increased moisture and pollen as the season shifts into autumn make life easier for the fungi. Ultimately of course, the leaf falls from the tree and becomes part of the forest floor where it will be recycled by the saprophytic fungi. BOLETUS VINACEOBASIS AND ROXANAE by Steve Nelsen Despite the overall dry year that 1999 was, Adrienne and I found two species of Boletus that were new to us, and that I think are identifiable. As usual, there were certainly more unfamiliar species that were quite unidentifiable to me. On June 20th, we took the Ice Age Trail segment leading north from the east entrance to Mauthe Lake, and I lost my knife (as usual). While looking for it, Adrienne found a single specimen of a red-orange pored Boletus. The pore color places it in Subsection Luridi, my favorite, and it shows a beautiful, distinct, red reticulum on the upper half of the stem, placing it among the six species in Stirps Luridus of Smith and Thiers, The Boletes of Michigan. The stem was dull yellow above (beneath the red reticulum) shading to purplish red at the base, and both flesh and pores turn rather intense blue exposure to air. I believe it to be B. vinaceobasis S. & T. (1971) on the basis of these macroscopic features and spore size. Smith and Thiers named a large number of new taxa in their 1971 monograph. Many of these, including this one, have not appeared in books I have seen that don't have Smith as a coauthor. This is the first such species that I have ever thought I identified, and even if I'm wrong, it is a striking mushroom. The other Bolete has a somewhat felty brown cap, initially white pores that turn light yellow in age, a brownish to golden yellow stem with swollen base, and flesh that doesn't change color after cutting. I believe it to B. roxanae Frost, described from Brattleboro, Vermont in 1874, and transferred to Xerocomus by Snell in 1945. Smith never recognized Xerocomus (he liked big genera, but certainly didn't mind having lots of species), so many American books retain it in Boletus. We found it three times this past year (1999), July 10th and 23rd, and August 15th, but always at the same place, the remarkably productive oak opening by the creek at Walking Iron County Park, and only one or two specimens at a time. Peck first found it at Sandlake, New York in 1878, but it has always been described as rare in the Middle West. ANOTHER PIECE OF WISCONSIN MYCOLOGICAL HISTORY by Dr. Alan Parker I came to UW-Waukesha in 1976 and shortly thereafter began searching for published references specifically dealing with Wisconsin fungi. Species lists are particularly interesting to find to see what's been found in what areas. Also valuable are taxonomic studies that cite Wisconsin collections. Technical papers with Wisconsin reports are often supported with herbarium vouchers; unfortunately this is not the case with some species lists. The reason for doing this literature searching is to find out what's been done previously and what new studies might add to the understanding of higher fungi in the state. I also enjoy knowing something about the people who have made contributions to Wisconsin mycology. My interest has been in both technical and popular publications, and within a short time my list seemed quite complete (except for scattered reports of individual species in a multitude of technical papers).Those familiar with literature searches realize this isn't a great accomplishment; with persistence, it's not too hard to find even the most obscure papers. Just when one is confident that the task has neared completion, along come some unusual surprises. One particular surprise that was recently given to me by a fellow bibliophile is a 5 x 7 1/2 inch, 30-page pamphlet entitled: Wisconsin--Midwest Edible Mushrooms by Dorothy Moulding Brown. The inside front cover has the subtitle: Popular Guide to the Common Edible Mushrooms of the City, Meadow, and Woodland, with Suggestions for their Table Preparation. Also noted is that Dorothy Brown is publisher of Wisconsin Folklore, and that this pamphlet is one of six parts of the Wisconsin Centennial Folklore Issue. The other parts deal with Native Americans, circus lore, and flowers/herbs. Printing was done by the Democrat Printing Company, Madison, Wisconsin. There is no publication date, but given information from someone familiar with the circus pamphlet, the year was probably 1948. The booklet describes 20 species (common names only) from the above-noted habitats, and presents a rather standard array of recipes. All commonplace and not particularly exciting. There is, however, some great historical information about amateur mycologists and their activities to be found here. The Editor's note by Brown on page 3 gives a brief but fascinating glimpse of Madison area mushrooming from roughly 1910--1945, and is reprinted below in its entirety: EDITORS NOTE THE MUSHROOM list is a reprint from the notes made by my husband, who founded and directed the Madison Mushroom Club for some thirty-five years. The club was organized with both city and University members, whose interest was in the collecting and eating of mushrooms. The meetings were distinguished by their informality -- each and everyone took part. They were held twice a month throughout the fall in Memorial Union. At each meeting the friends brought various displays of mushrooms gathered during their weekend jaunts, and from 50--75 different species were exhibited. These were often passed around among the group and handled. An informal talk was given by Mr. Brown, with added bits contributed by others, which helped make the meeting a most delightful evening. The Club popularized mushroom hunting both for the pleasure of making the acquaintance of mushrooms and for the sake of using them as a food. After Mr. Brown's death, the Mushroom Club has continued and is known as the Charles E. Brown Mushroom Club. To its members, with deep appreciation, this little volume is dedicated. Dorothy Moulding Brown Sitting around the UW-Madison Union a couple evenings a month viewing and discussing wild mushrooms sounds like great fun. These meetings may have resembled the end of some of our WMS forays when the fungi of the day are displayed and wild speculation begins. Back to the pamphlet at hand -- on page 4 is a photo portrait of Charles Brown with the notation that he died in February 1946. I wonder what ultimately happened to the C.E. Brown Mushroom Club? Turning back to Mrs. Brown's mushroom pamphlet, there was a note on page 5 that would further clarify her husband's background. The note indicated that the June 1944 issue of the Wisconsin Archeologist was an appreciation edition dedicated in its entirety to C.E. Brown. It was apparently published on the occasion of his retirement from professional life. When I located this reference it provided a wealth of data; the entire issue (Volume 25, No. 2, pps. 40--74) was a chronology of Brown's life from youth through a long and productive career. His primary expertise was in archeology, but his interests were diverse. Some of his more noteworthy accomplishments are quoted from the paper: -- In 1898 entered the salaried employment of the Milwaukee Public Museum, where he remained for four years. -- In 1904 received a museum appointment as curator of the Ethnology building in the U. S. Philippine Exhibition of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis, where he spent more than a year. -- 1908--1944 director of the State Historical Museum, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison; member of the faculty of the University of Wisconsin, 1914--1944. -- Secretary of the Wisconsin Archeological Society, 1903--1940; Editor of the Wisconsin Archeologist, 1903--1940. -- President of the Madison Mushroom Club (now the University Mushroom Club), 1910--1944. One of its organizers. Also one of the organizers of the Wisconsin Mycological Society, 1902--1908, Milwaukee. Made honorary member. The last entry listed above is particularly significant and curious. It appears that during Brown's last year of employment in Milwaukee the first Wisconsin Mycological Society was organized. The implication is that the first WMS functioned at least through 1908, the year that Brown left for Madison. From this information published about C.E. Brown's life, it is possible to speculate that the original Wisconsin Mycological Society dates to 1902. This is a valuable addition to tracing the origins of organized amateur mycology in Wisconsin. Also related to the Brown pamphlet is the solution to my long-standing curiosity about an early Wisconsin publication. The complete citation is as follows: Brown, C.E. and V. Ferneckes, 1902. Contribution towards a list of Milwaukee County Fungi. Bulletin Wisconsin Natural History Society. N.S. 2: 45--55. Following the papers of Bundy (1883) and Trelease (1889), this is only the third listing of non-parasitic higher fungi to appear for Wisconsin. Brown and Ferneckes state that they (and other collectors) had been attempting (during 1899--1901) to establish at the Milwaukee Public Museum a collection of the more common species of Milwaukee County fungi. According to the paper, the seasons of 1900 and 1901 were very favorable for collecting, and a number of species were prepared, determined, and placed on exhibit in the museum halls. The list contains 100 species, with scientific and common names, habitats, and some fruiting dates. I had always wondered about the authors of this paper; details about V. Ferneckes are still a mystery. Yet another interesting aspect of Brown's booklet is a "mushroom wheel" identification chart. Credited to Dr. George Englerth of the Forest Products Laboratory and dated September 1947, this may be an early copy of the original method of identifying genera of gilled mushrooms using a "wheel" diagram. There is another fascinating piece in the early WMS history entitled "Field Record of the Wisconsin Mycological Society for the Seasons of 1912, 1913, and 1914," but that will have to be the subject of another installment in local fungus history. How I found out about this reference is a story in itself. RECIPE: CABBAGE AND BOLETUS PATTIES WITH SAUCE by Greta Menka 3 cups shredded cabbage 3 cups chopped mushrooms (Boletus or others) 1 medium onion, chopped 2 Tablespoons butter 5 slices stale bread, crust removed salt and pepper to taste 4 egg yolks, well beaten dry bread crumbs butter 8 ounce can tomato sauce 2 Tablespoons sherry Parmesan cheese minced parsley Shred the cabbage and precook it in boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain for half an hour. Saute the chopped mushrooms and onion in 2 tablespoons butter. Soak the bread in a little water and squeeze dry. Mix the cabbage and mushrooms, the onion and bread. Add egg yolks. Salt and pepper to taste. Shape the mixture into small patties. Roll in bread crumbs. Fry in butter. Serve hot with tomato sauce which has been seasoned with sherry and garnished with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese and minced parsley. I have also used a tomato/sour cream mixture as sauce. TULA ERSKINE: 1907--2000 by Colleen Vachuska The Wisconsin Mycological Society lost one of it's more colorful members with the passing of Tula Erskine on March 13. Tula had been active in the study of fungi in Wisconsin for 50 or more years and was a well-known fixture at WMS forays and other events. She was 92 years old and had been in deteriorating health since a fall and hip replacement surgery in January. Born Gertrude Kundmann in 1907, Tula grew up and lived in Milwaukee for most of her life. She studied art at Wisconsin State College (now the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) and then worked as an art teacher at Rufus King High School and as a free-lance artist. Her paintings were widely displayed and her commissions included several works still on display at Milwaukee Public Schools. Tula also had a special interest in pre-Columbian sculptures and she and her husband James traveled extensively in Central and Latin America to make rubbings from them. Her rubbings were critically praised and they decorated her east side home. Tula had other interests as well, particularly in natural history. Not surprisingly, she first became interested in mushrooms through drawing them while she was living temporarily in wet Louisiana. As she told me once, she would often go on morning walks looking for plants or flowers to illustrate, but after several days of rain she would frequently find mushrooms instead. But Tula was a prober and a thinker, and much as she did with plants, she also developed a deep interest in trying to understand and identify fungi. Tula and her husband spent many hours exploring woods and trying to identify their fungal finds, and they acquired a wide knowledge of mycology. They became part of the older Wisconsin Mycological Society which existed during the 1960's and 1970's. Tula was the third president of this organization, and she began the practice of the club conducting group field trips. (Prior to this, the club had only lectures and small informal field trips.) The original WMS broke up in the 1970's, but was reincarnated in 1982. Since that time, Tula had been a member of the WMS board of directors and had served as a Vice-President since 1986. Over the years Tula was involved with amateur mycology and contributed to the WMS in a great variety of ways. Since Tula's expertise was in art, many of her contributions to our club were in this area. She designed the WMS membership card, the club stationery, and did most of the artwork for the early issues of the WMS newsletter. In 1993, she designed a fairy ring sweatshirt for the club. Tula also won several awards at NAMA forays for mushroom arrangements and T-shirt design. Those of us that were fortunate enough to have spent time at Tula's home know how she also incorporated mushrooms into a variety of craft work displayed in her home. However Tula was a creative and constructive person in many ways besides artistic. As a WMS director, Tula came up with many good ideas of things for the club to do and ways to do them, such as having a tree identification foray or having club members draw identification charts for their own use. As a foray leader, each fall Tula conducted the Fred Hainer Foray (named after the first president of WMS) to Point Beach State Forest. She also helped lead many other forays and of course was a wealth of identification information at all forays. Tula was also very instrumental in organizing the display and the identification of fungi and talking to visitors at our annual WMS-MPM Mushroom Fair. Other ways Tula gave of her time and knowledge to WMS include helping conduct mushroom identification workshops and classes, helping put together an introductory packet for new members, and writing items for the club newsletter. In short, Tula was always willing to offer her talents to our club. Even at an advanced age, as a Vice-President, she presided over club meetings when the need arose. Perhaps more important though than any of these things was the personality that Tula brought to amateur mycology. Many people came to her house to get their fungal specimens identified, but they also got good company and conversation. Her wide knowledge of botany and nature made her interesting to be around at forays. Her enthusiasm and questioning attitude at forays and other programs provided a good example for all of us. Finally, of course, Tula's spunk, charm, and wide interests made her someone quite memorable. Because of her many contributions to the club, we honored Tula with a poster exhibit at the 1995 NAMA Foray at Bemidj, Minnesota and by giving her the WMS Distinguished Service Award in 1997. Since Tula led the Point Beach Foray for many years and it was one of her favorite places to hunt, we also plan tentatively to have the fall 2000 Point Beach foray in her honor and scatter her ashes there. MEMORIES OF TULA Peter and I first met Tula in 1985 when she was looking for someone to ride with to WMS events. Since we lived near her home on Milwaukee's east side, we were natural candidates. Over the next several years, we drove Tula (in her Checker at first) to many WMS forays and meetings, our own personal forays, and even a few NAMA forays. So we had many opportunities to talk and get to know each other. So many things about Tula were distinctive: her red hair, her pipe, her car, the way she wrote her name, her plant-filled yard, the way she made lists for everything, I could go on and on. I was also impressed with how involved Tula was with many activities and organizations, not just the WMS. Probably what I will most remember though about Tula is how intelligent and well-thought out she was. She was very observant and nearly always had wise and thoughtful things to say on many subjects. Tula also put a lot of care and thought into whatever she did. The details of life were very important to her and she always had reasons for what she did or thought. Tula lived each day fully -- with care and gusto and dignity. It's wonderful that she was able to do it for nearly a century, and I feel honored to have known her. by Colleen Vachuska When I think of Tula, two memories immediately come to mind -- her love of field trips and the incredibly well-kept secret of her age. Then it's possible to turn to more detailed recollections of a unique person with surprisingly diverse interests. I first met Tula at a Botanical Club meeting in the late 1970's, but didn't really know about her passion for mushrooms until the Wisconsin Mycological Society was re-activated in 1982. Tula was at the forefront of the reactivation. She had been a major force in a former version of the WMS during the 1960's-1970's, and was absolutely delighted to be involved in the WMS rebirth of the 1980's. As the current Society grew, we attracted many people with great desire to learn about wild mushrooms, but with little or no expertise on how to approach the subject. I will always remember Tula's relentless enthusiasm for encouraging these beginners in mushroom study. Tula was at her best when given the chance to pore over specimen displays after WMS forays. It was obvious that she dearly loved to talk and teach about fungi she recognized (familiar mushrooms were treated like old friends) and speculate about the unknowns. More interesting ones were carefully stashed in her basket for spore prints and further study at home. Tula will always be remembered as "one of a kind" in her leadership role within the Wisconsin Mycological Society. by Alan Parker If you have been a member of WMS for any length of time you will have several "Tula stories". I was blessed to have met Tula when I first joined the club in 1985. She tried to get to know several new members each year, and I guess I was lucky enough to need her help. Her method of teaching was to draw out your knowledge first, add to it and then come up with the answer. She knew that if you were to truly learn, you had to remember the logical steps required to identify the mushroom. One time I had found some deer droppings covered by white mycelium. They looked like small puffballs. I asked Tula to help me identify the "find." She put them in her hand, studying them intently. Suddenly she looked at me and said sternly, "Chuck, you know what these are!" Another time I observed her deep in study on some small, rather colorful mushrooms while at a NAMA foray. I had found some and had keyed them out to Cortinarius, even though they did not have the usual cottony veil. She came to me later and asked what I thought they could be. I non-chalantly said Cortinarius and went about studying the mushrooms I was working on. Three hours later she came in and asked how I would have guessed Cortinarius and I quoted the text about certain small Cortinarius with brown spores that will not have the typical cottony web. After that we spent many enjoyable hours discussing and identifying our mushroom finds. She loved talking to people and and sharing her knowledge of one of her passions -- mushrooms. I was lucky enough that she shared that enthusiasm with me. by Chuck Soden I knew Tula for 20 years, and she always had something interesting to say. For one NAMA foray we drove eight hours each way together, and even though she was almost twice my age, I never got bored. She always had a quirky, quizzical way of looking at things that kept one's interest. Though I've been a botanist for 25 years, she was the one who taught me about the little black aborted flower in the middle of each Queen Anne's lace, and how sometimes one gets lucky and sees the see-through spider as well. She will never be far from my thoughts. by Kris Ciombor END