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2025 Past Lectures

Jun 25 / Maria Alice Neves
Ancient Fungi: The impact of fungi on the evolution of Earth

If you close your eyes and imagine earlier geological times of the Earth, what do you see? Are there mushrooms among the dinosaurs and the tree ferns? In this talk we will see how fungi have impacted the evolution of the Earth, transforming the planet into what it is today. Fossils from fungi are not very common to be found, but there are several of them to tell us part of the history of the fungi on Earth.

Jun 5 / Aishwarya Veerabahu
The Midas Mushroom: Ecological Impacts of the Invasive Golden Oyster Mushroom

Golden oyster mushrooms (GOM; Pleurotus citrinopileatus) have become the new friendly, neighborhood, easily found, edible mushroom- but are they friendly neighbors to local fungi? In this talk, we’ll discuss our findings regarding GOM’s negative impacts, where it could spread to next, and how you all can help out with the research moving forward!

May 22 / Ryan Stephens
Mammals, Truffles, and Trees: Linking Above- and Below-ground Interactions

Many fungal taxa have evolved to fruit belowground (truffles) and require animals, particularly small mammals,to consume and disperse spores. This is a key mutualistic interaction where in exchange for providing spore dispersal, small mammals get an important food source. Focusing on communities from the Northeastern and Midwestern USA, this talk will discuss the factors that shape the interactions between truffles and small mammals, and the drivers of mammal-mediated fungal spore dispersal across spatial scales, including the role of predators as secondary dispersers.

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May 22 / Eyes Big as Plates: Dressing for the Kingdom of Flora, Fauna, and Funga

Riitta Ikonen and Karoline Hjorth will present an in-depth exploration of their award winning 14-year collaboration, Eyes as Big as Plates. They have traveled across five continents and 17 countries, using a blend of art and action research to ask the question, “What is nature?” The duo works with complementing skills through photography, wearable sculpture and text, with a core mission to highlight dialogue on radical system change on interspecies relations.

Please use passcode 6@$Vck9. to access the zoom recording. Note that the period at the end is part of the code.

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May 8 / Jonathan Gewirtzman
The Hidden Life Inside Trees

Trees are more than just plants—they host distinct and highly specialized microbial communities within their wood. Deep in the oxygen-limited heartwood, fungi, bacteria, and archaea form unique ecosystems, shaping tree health and even contributing to methane production. This talk explores how these microbiomes vary across tree species and tissues, their interactions, and their surprising role in forest biogeochemistry.

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May 4 / Jacob Heilmann-Clausen
Combining Citizen Science, Traditional Taxonomy and Barcoding to Expand Knowledge on Fungal Biodiversity in Denmark – and Beyond

Jacob talks to us on The Danish Fungal Atlas (https://svampe.databasen.org/) and their new European project Fun Dive on fungal monitoring and mapping (https://fun-dive.eu/).

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Apr 29 / Dr. Cathy L. Cripps
What we learned from the Montana Morel Poisonings in 2023: Are morels really safe to eat?

Dr. Cathy L. Cripps will walk us through a 2023 incidents related to eating morel mushrooms, and talk about details of what happened, what we learned,and how it might apply to your own consumption of morels
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Apr 27 / Benton Taylor
Mycorrhizal Fungi Supporting Forests of the Future

As human activity continues to pour CO2 into the atmosphere, terrestrial ecosystems are becoming increasingly important natural carbon sinks that help mitigate this atmospheric carbon accumulation. Currently, terrestrial ecosystems take up and sequester 1/3 of humans’ annual carbon emissions, but how long this so-called “CO2 Fertilization” effect will persist is highly uncertain. Plants’ continued ability to take up nutrients from the soil is critical for CO2 fertilization to occur, and their primary means of doing so inmost ecosystems is through partnerships with mycorrhizal fungi. This talk will explore experimental evidence from both temperate and tropical forests on the increased role that belowground mycorrhizal partnerships will play in supporting nutrient acquisition, tree growth, and terrestrial carbon sequestration in a future CO2-enriched world.
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Mar 27 / Don Pfister
Fungaria and the MycoPortal

Fungaria are central to the study of fungi. They provide the physical evidence needed to describe a species morphologically; in many cases DNA sequences can be obtained from deposited material. The importance of depositing specimens in phylogenetic and genomic studies is essential. In this talk I will outline the general use and guidelines practiced in the administration of fungaria and how this relates to databases and Mycoportal in particular.

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Mar 13 / Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian
Mary Elizabeth Banning

Mary Elizabeth Banning (1822-1903) was one of the first American mycologists. She was a talented, self-taught scientist who studied mushrooms in Maryland in themid-1800s. Banning was one of the first women to describe new species of fungi to science. Throughout her life, she produced scientific descriptions, beautiful illustrations, and rich narratives about her fungal encounters. On account of her gender, however, Banning’s work and talent went underappreciated in her lifetime, and her name was lost to obscurity for almost a century. This talk will celebrate her contribution to science and mycology through an exploration of her illustrations, taxonomic work, and story-telling, drawing from the collections at the New York State Museum.

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Feb 20 / Madeline DeDe-Panken
19th-Century Field Fights:How The Rise of Popular Mycology Made Foraging White

Madeline DeDe–Panken , who many of you know from The Mushroom Shop and last Spring’s Culinary potluck dinner program, will discuss the rise of popular mycology in America at the turn of the twentieth century, focusing on cultural clashes over what (and whose) knowledge was judged trustworthy for safe mushroom foraging.
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Feb 6 / Eugenia Bone:
Bumps in the Road: The Challenges of Mainstreaming Magic Mushrooms

Many people in psychedelic advocacy see psilocybin, the psychoactive molecule in many Psilocybe species, as having the potential to improve mental health and enhance spirituality. They ask what could possibly be problematic about legalizing and medicalizing a drug which might do so much good?  It turns out fitting magic mushrooms into our medical, legal, and commercial models is like trying to put a round peg into a square hole. I’ll break down some of the most significant bumps in the road to mainstreaming magic mushrooms use.

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Jan 25 / Ethan Crensan:
Pyrenomycetes: Dots on Sticks... Scabs on Branches

Pyrenomycetes are not the most charismatic fungi on the table at a foray…if they make it to the table at all. But these carbonaceous,mostly drab-colored fungi are ubiquitous in our environment. This talk will look at the taxonomy of these fungi, focusing on macroscopic features that can aid in identifying them along with some microscopic features as well. The emphasis is on the larger pyrenomycetes—the “scabs on sticks”—focusing on the common inhabitants of the Northeastern US, with some smaller “dots on sticks” you’re likely to find if you foray with a magnifying loupe.
 
Use passcode: .v7mdM!P to view the video recording.