President's Message

Our short summer is, as usual, flying by much too quickly. The forays have been well attended as have been the Monday evening meetings, making for a swell mushroom season so far this year with the best yet to come.

2003 Summer Forays

Our summer forays have been well attended and a lot of fun and for the most part productive of a wide variety of mushroom species.

Afton State Park Foray, June 7

About 20 people, on a very cool Saturday morning, participated in our foray at Afton State Park. We began with high hopes, although knowing that early June is not a good time to look for mushrooms. One frequent companion on our forays was missing, Lee Moellerman's mushroom hound. Following the foray and then lunch at the picnic area we were able to identify nearly 40 species. Included in this group were a couple of pretty sorry looking morels, proving once again the morel gathering season is indeed short, but sweet.

Louisville Swamp Foray, June 21

We had a group of dozen members (being politically correct I include Lee Moellerman's dog Toottle or Toots as Lee likes to call her) attend our foray to Louisville Swamp, including a surprise visitor and fine mycologist, Dr. Pat Leacock. Pat was visiting the Twin Cities from the Field Museum in Chicago and came to the foray with Adele Mehta. It was lucky we had Pat with us as the area was extremely dry and, as is usually the case in such conditions, we examined mostly polypore of many varieties which Pat was able to identify. As always we did come across a Pluteus cervinus as well as a Polyporus squamosus, Mycena leaiana, Coprinus quadrifidus, Pleurotus ostreatus and one of Ron Spinosa's favorites - chocolate slime, i.e., Stemonitis axifera.

Lee Moellerman and Ron Spinosa investigate a suspicious fallen tree.

Even though it was not a productive day mushroom hunting wise, it was nevertheless a beautiful day for a long walk in the woods and, in our case, also in the scenic dry creek beds of the swap. Following a couple of hours on the foray trail, we drove to the nearby village of Jordan and had our picnic lunches under some large shade trees in the Lagoon Park and enjoyed watching several youngsters playing with their toy power boats in the lake. On the way back to the twin cities Ron and I stopped by a meat shop that was established over 100 years ago, or about the same time the Minnesota Mycological Society was founded. It is the oldest ongoing business in the village according to a newspaper article posted on one of the walls of the shop. The photographs in the newspaper article were taken many years ago and show the very same shop we were in with the complete carcasses of six or seven cattle with their hides still on hanging from the ceiling. Looking at that scene caused me to reflect on the fact that times have certainly changed for the better for both the meat business and for the study of mycology over the last 100 years. Ron did purchase some very good looking sausage from the busy butcher.

Fort Snelling State Park Foray, July 12

We had a beautiful day for our visit to Fort Snelling State Park's Pike Island. An enthusiastic group of mushroomers made it to the foray with the hope of discovering some good to eat mushrooms. The best finds were several Lyophyllum decastes (Fried Chicken), a species Steve Netzman particularly enjoys, and an Amanita, maybe a virosa (Destroying Angel). The other mushrooms discoveries were made up of several species including, among others, a tiny Laetiporus sulphureus (Sulfur Shelf) and a Marasmius rotula. During lunch near the Interpretative Center we had the opportunity to watch the beginning of a hornet's nest being built on a tree limb directly above our picnic table. Patty Bellino, as a practical joke, took an ineffective swing at it with a stick that was luckily much, much too short or we all would have been running for cover.

Left-to-Right: Glen Creuziger, Lee Moellerman, Adele Mehta and Bob Fulgency posing behind a basket.

William O'Brien State Park Foray, July 26

We had a good foray turn out on what proved to be a very warm and humid day. The group met at the parking lot near the picnic area. Lee led us on a path south along the west side of the St. Croix River. Our searchers did manage to find a good many specimens, in spite of the fact that there had not been any significant rain on the park for over a week. There were a several Chanterelles found, but they were, for the most part, too dried-out to be edible, although a few were in fair condition. Long time member Doris Johannes, whom we had not seen in quite awhile, made it to the foray; it was nice to see her out on the trail with us again. Dr. Dennis McKenna and his daughter, Caitlyn, who live near the park, were able to join the foray. Dennis gave us his insights into many subjects dear to our hearts. Patty and Leon arrived a little late so they did not make the foray along the river; however, they did enjoy having lunch with us participating in our examining and identifying of the day's finds. Ron Spinosa was good enough to compile the species list found at O’Brien, as follows:

William O'Brien Foray 2003 - Igor Blokhintsev with some Russulas

William O'Brien Foray 2003 - Dennis Mckenna and others discussing the day's take.

Nerstrand Big Woods State Park, August 9

A good many optimistic and diehard members made it to this foray even though we all knew that the chances of finding much in the way or mushrooms was remote to nil due to the fact that we have not had any rain to speak of for about a month. On the other hand, one benefit from the lack of rain was the absence for the most part of mosquitoes. Joe Bornono came with his twins, Zach and Kyral. He also brought with him from another outing a Chanterelle look alike, the Scaly Vase Chanterelle (gomphus flocosus), which is not only inedible, it is poisonous. We did discover some Lobsters (Hypomyces lactifluorum) and even a few Chanterelles (Cantharellus cibarius). On the positive side, we came upon a large number of Black Berries so that we did have something for the proverbial pot besides the Lobsters. Other interesting mushrooms found included a Northern Tooth (Climacodon septentrionale), Jelly (Tremella spp.), and the unusual looking and uncommon Asterophora lycoperdoides, a parasitic mushroom that makes its home on the cap of old mushrooms, usually a Russula, i.e. a small mushroom growing on the top of another. After lunch several of our members, undaunted by the morning hunt's poor results, continued their foray through the park. Although we had scheduled a short course on the use of the compass during this foray, the course postponed because the member who had requested it did not make it to the foray.