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Mycological Society of Toronto Meetings

The MST organizes four informative Speaker Series meetings a year for our members, in October, November, February, and March. Guest speakers are invited to give presentations on various topics associated with the field of mycology, usually illustrated with slides. The MST holds its Annual General Meeting in April.

MST meetings are held either via Zoom or in-person at the Auditorium of the Toronto Botanical Garden, located at the southwest corner of Leslie St. and Lawrence Ave. East in Toronto. For General Meetings, meet by 7:30 pm unless indicated otherwise. Refreshments are served following in-person meetings.

Members of the public are welcome as guests to attend one meeting prior to joining the Society.

MST members have access to videos of Speaker Series presentations after each meeting.

Meetings for 2025-2026

Speaker Series: Wednesday, November 12, 2025 7:30 p.m.

Speaker: Daniel Winkler

Presentation: Fungal Fruits of the Forest - Choice Edible Mushrooms of the Pacific North West

Mushrooms grow in abundance in the Pacific Northwest nearly year around. Some are poisonous, many of no culinary value and a select group are some of the best food to enjoy. Daniel will present on well known PNW’s choice edible mushrooms, such as chanterelles, hedgehogs, king boletes, bear’s head and cauliflower mushroom. All these mushrooms are fairly easy to identify, helping one to overcome fungophobia and truly appreciate wild mushrooms. However, there are many more very enjoyable mushrooms like culinary truffles that fruit underground or other mushrooms that need much more experience for safe identification. In this richly illustrated presentation Daniel will help you get to know, identify and find many great edible mushrooms. By the example of enjoyable PNW edible fungi Daniel will open for you the gates to the kingdom of fungi and elucidate their ecological functions and diversity in lifestyles. Key in finding your mushrooms is getting to know their preferred habitat and their seasonality. Daniel will share lots of new insights from his book “Fruits of the Forest – Handbook to Edible Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest. In addition, Daniel is mixing in some fungal fun & facts from his ethno-mycological research and Mushroaming adventure travels.

Daniel Winkler grew up collecting and eating wild mushrooms in the Alps and is sharing his enthusiasm as a mushroom educator, photographer and guide. Daniel published his “Fruits of the Forest – Field Guide to Pacific Northwest Edible Mushrooms” (available at mushroaming.com). The 400 page, gorgeously illustrated book is the essence of a life time of mushroom hunting around the world, here in the book focused on our incredible edible mushrooms of the PNW, where Daniel has been living the last 29 years PNW. Previously he published a series of fold-out field guides on Edible Mushrooms of the PNW and California (both Harbour Publishing, Madera BC), Amazon Mushrooms, and Medicinal Mushrooms of North America, as well as MycoCards “Boletes of Western North America”. In his presentations he is combining his stunning photography with a blend of entertaining stories and most recent scientific information. Daniel managed to bend his career as an ecologist and geographer focused on High Asia towards researching Tibet’s enormous fungal economy. His ethno-mycological Cordyceps research has been featured in National Geographic, New York Times, NPR, BBC World Service etc. In the last decade Daniel started exploring neotropical fungi. With his travel agency MushRoaming Daniel is organizing mushroom focused eco-adventures since 2007, current destinations are Bhutan and Colombia.

This meeting will be held online via Zoom
How to Join:
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Updated March 6th, 2025

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