Monday, October 18, 2010 7:45 p.m.
Speaker: Dr. Kathie Hodge, Associate Professor, Director of Dept. of Plant Pathology, Cornell University, Ithaca NY
Presentation: "Vegetable Wasps: Fungi that Kill Bugs"
Description: Kathie will be talking about mushrooms, moulds and morbid insects. She will show you pictures and talk lovingly about these hidden jewels. They are pretty awesome things including the noble genus Cordyceps, the grasshopper bane Metarhizium, and Roland Thaxter's early favourites, the Entomophthorales, which kill their hosts with subtle ballistosporic zeal! We'll take a tour through a whole variety of fungi that, up close, terrifying but beautiful. Join us for an informative and fun evening.
Monday, November 15, 2010 7:45 p.m.
Speaker: Walter Sturgeon, Mycologist from Ohio
Presentation: "Uncommon and/or Unusual Fleshy Fungi in Ontario"
Description: Walter will be showing us some fleshy fungi not common in most of Ontario, as well as some that are of interest or may be overlooked.
Monday, February 21, 2011 7:45 p.m.
Speaker: Jonathan Forbes, owner of Forbes Fine Foods
Presentation: Sustainable Foraging
Description: Jonathan will talk about sustainable foraging and about his business.
Monday, April 18, 2011 7:30 p.m.
Annual General Meeting for 2010-2011
Speaker: Michael Warnock, current MST Vice-President and owner of IDonsite, a mould sample analysis company.
Presentation: Mushrooms and Microscopes: Taking Your Identification Skills a Step Further
Description: Michael Warnock, Chairman of the Microscopy Committee, will discuss the basics of using a microscope to solve some of the common mushroom mysteries encountered in the MST. Although microscopes can seem intimidating, they are actually very simple instruments that are no more challenging to operate than many household appliances. Come out and enjoy a discussion (with pictures) of some of the small wonders that are collected on MST forays.
Monday, October 19, 2009 7:45 p.m.
Speaker: George White
Presentation: The Unseen Forest: Terrestrial and Aquatic Microfungi in Ontario
Description: Microfungi are a major ecological component contributing significantly to biodegredation and nutrient recycling in the forest. Because of their small size, they tend to be overlooked and neglected even though they are some of the most common entities in our natural environment. They come in an amazing variety and complexity of shapes and sizes and utilize some interesting and diverse methods to produce spores. This talk will increase awareness of this group and expose the audience to their beauty and biodiversity of form and function. The audience will acquire a whole new appreciation of what goes on in the forest at the microscopic level.
Monday, November 16, 2009 7:45 p.m.
Speaker: Dr. Scott Redhead, Curator, National Mycology Herbarium, Ottawa
Presentation: Mushroom Morphology (appearance) vs. Phylogeny (evolutionary origins)
Description: Dr. Redhead will shed light on what is driving recent changes in mushroom classification. He surely knows how confusing these are for those of us following the traditional classification, and how much mystery surrounds this topic for MST members. This is our chance to better understand this "new world" which seems inevitably to be encroaching upon us.
Monday, February 15, 2010 7:45 p.m.
Speaker: Richard Aaron, MST Member
Presentation: "Mushroom Names, Mushroom Meanings: Through field and forest with a dictionary"
Description: With few standardized names in English for fungi, the use of scientific names is unavoidable. But fear not! Join our speaker on a fanciful frolic through the field guides as he makes a dead language come to life. We will explore names dealing with a host of characteristics including colour, habitat, and edibility, and also consider some fungi named for people. In addition, we will probe the surprising connections many of these terms have with English words we use on a regular basis. You will never look at Latin the same way again.
Monday, March 15, 2010 7:45 p.m.
Speaker: Dr. David Malloch, Museum of New Brunswick, (and MST's past Scientific Advisor).
Presentation: "Decades (and Decades) of Eastern Canadian Fungi"
Description: Forty-five years of collecting fungi in the forests of eastern Canada have yielded more than just a million mosquito bites and the occasional mushroom dinner. They have also led to the conclusion that although the same species of plants range across the entire region, the fungi differ from place to place. Species commonly found around Thunder Bay fail to be found in Nova Scotia. Morels, a mainstay of spring collecting in Ontario, are rare or maybe even absent along the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick. Chantarelles, gathered commercially in the Maritime Provinces, are less common inland. In Quebec where forest meets tundra, there are mushrooms so far unknown in the rest of the country. Presented here are some observations, pictures and speculations on why our region is as diverse and interesting as it is.
Monday, April 19, 2010 7:30 p.m.
Annual General Meeting for 2009-2010
Speaker: Dr. Jack Hay, Professor Emeritus, Department of Immunology, University of Toronto.
Presentation: "A Growing Interest "
Description: Interest in Dr. Hay's 1000-log shiitake operation at Moon River Bay on Georgian Bay is growing. He will tell us of its impact on other communities and of the mycological research role now developing on his land. Do join us to hear Dr. Hay's informative presentation.
