Ain't We Got Fungus?

Super ’shrooms: The variety of wild
mushrooms that grow in Central New York is impressive. Just be sure
that those you are eating are not poisonous.  MICHAEL DAVIS PHOTO

On Sunday, Sept. 14, Beaver Lake Nature Center, 8477 E.
Mud Lake Road, Baldwinsville, will host the Central New York
Mycological Society’s Wild Mushrooms Foray. The free event begins at 1
p.m. and will consist of a 90-minute walking tour along a select trail
at Beaver Lake. Participants will get the chance to collect and
identify the various species of mushrooms found along the walk. 

Bernie Carr, member of the Central New York Mycological
Society (CNYMS), as well as Jean Fahey, president of CNYMS, will lead
the foray. Although participants will be able to collect some mushrooms
during the walk, the event will serve mostly as an informational
session about the various mushroom species found, as well as an
opportunity for Beaver Lake to display some of its finest hidden fungi,
says Carr.

“Most of what we try to do {on forays}
is to give people an idea about the variety of mushrooms and if they
have an interest in eating mushrooms, to do it safely,” says Carr.

Mushrooms are technically the reproductive structure of fungi, a type of organism more closely related to animals than plants. “When
you pick a mushroom from the ground, you don’t harm it in any way, but
rather remove a chance for the fungi to reproduce,” says David Fischer,
expert on the ecology and identification of mushrooms and former CNYMS
president. Fischer, who has led several CNYMS forays in the past and
has written books about mushrooms, predicts that participants will have
no trouble finding a large variety of mushrooms at the park this Sunday.

For mushrooms to flourish in the wild, they must survive
excessive poison ivy, mosquitoes and summertime heat. If the ’shrooms
manage to make it through the season, they then must retain a high
level of moisture from precipitation to further ensure their survival.
Excessively dry summers can lead to catastrophe for mushroom
enthusiasts, explains Fischer. “Mushroomers find themselves looking at
birds {during droughts},” he says.

With July’s high amount of precipitation, Fischer
believes there will be hundreds of different species of mushrooms
waiting to be found in Beaver Lake’s woods. Although some mushrooms
along the trail could function as a tasty snack for some, no one will
be able to take any home for cooking: Poisonous mushrooms may be
lurking close to edible ’shrooms in the forest.

One poisonous mushroom found in Central New York,
ominously called the Death Angel, is a killer fungus found commonly
throughout the United States. With its menacing look—picture the big
red and white mushroom from Disney’s Alice and Wonderland without the red specks—it’s a possibility that members may run into the species during the foray, says Carr.

Participants shouldn’t host too much death anxiety during
the afternoon, though. As long as they keep the mushroom away from
their mouths, they’ll survive, explains Fischer. “You can handle even
the deadliest mushrooms and you’re not gonna be poisoned by handling
them,” he says. “You have to eat them.”

Other species of mushrooms that could be found along the
trail include coral mushrooms, which resemble seal coral, and amanita
muscaria, a mushroom that retains hallucinogenic properties, says Carr.

The foray is one of more than 300 similar events CNYMS
has held since its inception in the early 1980s. Foray seasons spans
from May to October, during which the club hosts one to two forays per
month around the Central New York area, says Carr.

Registration for the foray is required
and can be done at Beaver Lake’s information desk. There is a $2 charge
for parking. For more information, call 638-2519.  Click on our recipe section for recipes using mushrooms.