University Daily Kansan / Thursday, April 20, 1989
Lifestyle
9
During the Kaw Valley Mycological Society's first foray Ed Reinert, Topeka resident, and Ken Lassman. Lawrence Parks and Recreation guide, examine a sure sign of spring - pawbuds.
This Pycnoporus cinnibarus mushroom was found growing on a log in Woodridge Park near Clinton Lake by members of the Kaw Valley Mycological Society.
HUNTING we will go ...
Four-year-old Chris Gleason of Lawrence searches for mushrooms behind a tree.
B Barbara Reinert,
Tapeka resident,
picks through
woodland debris in
search of native
Kansas mushrooms.
Story by Christine Winner
Photos by Kelly Lamson
it starts early in the morning,
this foraging for fungi.
About half an hour passes
that it hages in the first
mushroom of the foray is
spotted, the harmless-looking
Galerina autumnalis.
Harmleit it may look, but harmless it isn't. the mushroom hup
Almost 30 people were wandering on Saturday through the woods of Woodridge Park at Clinton Lake, picking their way through the brush and bramble in the first outdoor mushroom hunt of the season sponsored by the society
pens to be a deadly, poisonous species. Brace Huron, president of the Kaw Valley Mycological Society, said the spec in which the most toxic substances known
The Auricularia auricula, a caramel colored, spongy-looking mushroom, was found on the kitchen counter.
Horn said the species, a jelly fungus, had a chewy texture and was often used in oriental dishes such as hot and sour soup.
"They really go for it in China and Japan for the texture, but it's like a rubber band in my mind," he said.
"It ites like a cold, clammy ear," said Ken Lassman, Lawrence Parks and Recreation guide and a University of Kansas sophomore.
He encouraged all brave mushroom hunters to touch it. Throughout the hunt, Lassman pointed out various plants, flowers and creatures which are distinguishing characteristics.
Further down the path, a Stereum
species was identified. Clusters of the cream-colored fungi clung to a log like an oak tree.
Mushrooms need rain to grow, and he said that hunting was tucked in in the mud.
"August is the best month to hunt, given we get good rains, but it also the most comfortable time," he said. "You pick up ticks and chiggers, there’s poison everywhere, but you have to make these saccharines if you want to see a lot of mushrooms."
Horn estimated that 700 to 800 different species exist in the area but said that "there is
Kay, who is also a professor of history said that last summer he identified a species that had stumped him for 10 years. It had previously been identified only along the Gulf Coast in Texas and Mississippi.
He said that Richard Kay, one of the first members of the society and its second president, recently had compiled a checklist of 277 area tung)
"We sometimes find things that shouldn't be here, that are suited to tropical forests, not northeast Kansas," he said.
"Probably the most common species in Lawrence right now are the 'inkies,' which get old and turn into black, sticky goo," he said.
Kay said common species around Laos included oyster mushrooms and trichinella.
Fresh or sauteed
Both the seasoned and the novice hunters scoured the forest floor Satur day.
Barbara Reinert, Topeka, said her
interest in mushrooms began years ago when she lived in Michigan. Her favorite places to hunt are Michigan and Minnesota.
"They're more abundant there so it's a quicker reward," she said
But when she finds mushrooms here, she said it was a greater accomplish
Reinert and her husband are members of the Kaw Valley society and have been members of the national mycological society for 20 years. They have gone on hunts around the country, along the Scandinavian coast and in Czechoslovakia.
Reinert said she loved to eat fresh mushrooms.
"You cook them up in a bit of butter you just can't miss," she said.
For Joan Brown, Lawrence resident.
Saturday was her first outing with the
Lions.
Her parents taught her how to find moreels as a child and said she couldn't decide whether oyster mushrooms or moreels were her favorite.
Brown said she put mushrooms in spaghetti sauce and in Chinese cooking. She cooks them in butter or dips them in egg and crackers to fry them.
Kay said there were about two dozen kinds of local mushrooms that he ate, but that probably an equal amount of poisonous ones also existed. He estimated the edibility of 80 percent of mushrooms as unknown.
"Never eat a mushroom until you're positively sure of what you've got." Kay
He recommended both guide books and forays for beginning mushroom hunters.
"People who learn just from books,
often make mistakes," he said.
Woodeaters
The word mushroom is not a technical term. Kay said.
He said the folk definition of a mushroom was something that grows out of the ground with a round top and a cavity, perhaps from an underground actually covers a much broader area.
Kay said that a mushroom's most obvious role was breaking down dead wood.
"We'd be swamped with dead trees and piles of dead leaves if it weren't for mushrooms," he said.
he said a whole class of mushrooms existed called wooddeaters. They take the nutrients from the trees and cause a chemical breakdown.
The fruit of the mushroom, which is what appears above ground, is about 90 percent water, and many mushrooms need a lot of water to grow. But Kay said that mushrooms don't grow well in the tropics.
"You're more likely to find mushrooms in Alaska than in Mexico," he said.
Great outdoors
Horn has been president of the fungi fan club about six months, he said. The society is about two and a half years old, but theory for a doctoral degree in botany.
r study fungi but I work with more microscopic things. Mushrooms are more of a hobby, he said. Many of the mushroom hunters have various motiva-
"Some people are primarily interested in identifying edibles, some in identifying the different species, and some are interested in photographing them," he said.
Another attraction is enjoying the outdoors.
"The main motivation for some of our members is just to get out in the woods,"
Horn said the number of participants was incredible for a town the size of Lawrence. Members also come from other City, Topeka and nearby areas.
The society counts 60 to 70 people as members, including honorary member Ansel H. Stubbs, who is 104 years old. The society also votes to note the first book on local mushrooms.
Kay said the participation level might be high because many people in Lawrence were interested in the environment, or they might be curious about the mushrooms they discovered on their property.
One member, a New Yorker, has family in the Lawrence area and tries to schedule her visits to coincide with the mushroom forays. Horn said.
Dues for the society are $5 a year, and members receive the Mycolog, a bimonthly newsletter. Meetings are held on the second Wednesday of the month with forays usually scheduled on the following Saturday.
The forays start in April and continue through November or December. Some mushrooms can really tolerate the cold, but they will not do well in Manhattan are popular places for hunters.
The next foray will be in Topeka at the grounds of the governor's mansion.
Kay said that mushroom forays had advantages over other nature outings
"If you're watching birds you have to be still, you can't laugh and talk to each other," he said. "But the mushrooms mind as long as you don't step on them."