Fall Foray Report, 2007

We organized 14 forays around the GTA, Cambridge and Niagara areas this fall. For the first few forays, there were practically no fresh-gilled mushrooms around; almost all we found were Polypores, and some of these may have been there for ages! However, later in the season we managed to find more species, but I sense that we put in an exceptional amount of effort to find them. The average number of species collected on a foray was 56, down from 67 last year and 74 the year before.

The largest number of species collected was in Vito and Ernie’s foray in York Forest and came in at 107, well down from an amazing 155 species collected the record foray last year. This season’s relatively poor collections were mirrored in lower participant turnouts. On average, we had 18 participants in each foray as compared to an average of 23 in 2006 and 25 in 2005. Let us hope that 2008 will bring a good wet fall to encourage a profusion of fungal fruitings.

Even though volume and variety were not up to expectations, we did get some surprises in species collected. New to many of us was Vito’s collection of Lentinellus cochleatus (though a bit aged, the collection looked similar to Barron’s picture, page 294).

Another new species for many was Pseudoclitocyb cyathiformis, collected in Palgrave and in Albion Hills. Also unexpected was the find of Bondarzewia berkeleyi. Another event that defied our mycological knowledge was the discovery again of what we might call the “aborted Tricholoma myomyces”; we have seen them repeatedly during previous years under pine needles but have no idea as to what may be happening. Were they really

aborted mouse mushrooms or were they something else?

As always we are indebted to the various foray leaders who made sure that the foray went smoothly and ensured that everybody was accounted for at the end of each foray. Thanks also to all those who helped with the identification of the specimens; I sense some of our members allocate time in the winter months to the study of their mushroom guide books - let’s all do so this winter and we will be wiser in 2008.

Alan Gan