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Bill Sheehan’s vision of bringing sequencing to dedicated addicts of the world of fungi taxonomy will have lasting impacts. FunDiS’ influence on the South Sound Mushroom Club (SSMC) near Puget Sound in Washington has been powerful, not just to our small group, but also to the scientific community -- especially for fungal taxonomy across the world.

We are living in a moment of overlapping ecological crises. One of those crises is the growing list of extinct species, disappearing at a rate thousands of times higher than normal. That includes animals, plants, and of course, fungi. But there’s something unique about the problem when it comes to fungi: being one of the least studied kingdoms of life, we don’t even know what we’re losing.

The West Coast Rare Fungi Challenge put the spotlight on ten species during its pilot period. Seven out of ten species were observed during the six month pilot period, from October 2020 to the end of March 2021. Knowing that there are thousands of mushroom species on the west coast from Alaska to California, you may wonder, "why were these ten chosen"?

I’ve been a mushroom enthusiast for nearly 40 years, at first concentrating on edible types, but I eventually came to realize that all mushrooms are interesting. In 2006 I discovered mushroom discussion on the internet and started making posts to Mushroom Observer with my first digital camera. I have submitted fungal collections to researchers, both professional and advanced-amateur. 

Yes, it is an “8-headed Amanita ocreata,” measuring 11 cm across and 9.5 cm tall. I sectioned it to find at least eight caps inside one volva. An Amanita like this has never been reported before. Mycologist Rod Tulloss, who specializes in Amanita, commented, “I can’t remember anything like it.” One suggestion is that at least eight primordia were very crowded together and developed to share a volval sac. Who knows?

Ranger Creek. An experience to remember...

ALWAYS!