#mycology

#mycology

The Mycological Society of San Francisco Fungus Fair includes the latest collection of expertly identified fungi collected in various locations in the Bay Area. These annual collections constitute a 50-year record of the early winter fungal diversity in our area. This historical information may become an important contribution to science as climate change affects our local ecosystems. In the San Francisco Bay Area, when the first rains tease up the chanterelles and porcini, fungus lovers head to the Fungus Fair.

But moist, forested Oregon-and the Cascadia ecoregion more broadly-has always been a "fungal paradise," according to mycologist Noah Siegel, coauthor of a 2024 guidebook, Mushrooms of Cascadia, that covers over 750 species. "They come in pretty much every single color possible and range from minuscule tiny little mushrooms that are a millimeter across to the Noble Polypores, which can be five feet across," Siegel says. "All of that is right under your nose, in the forest around you." It's truly a wonderland out there.

His goal: to traverse the open ocean to San Pedro, just south of Los Angeles, some 26.4 miles away. But upon a closer look, Shoemaker's kayak was no ordinary kayak. Brown-ish yellow and bumpy in texture, it had been made or rather, grown entirely from mushrooms. His journey, if successful, would mark the world's longest open-water journey in a kayak built from this unique material.