Christian Schwarz and Penelope Gillette: The Mycoflora Project (by )
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Please join us for our General Meeting at the Harvey West Scout House. Doors open at 7, with refreshments and informal mushroom ID from 7:00 - 7:30. A discussion of upcoming events will precede our speakers, Christian Schwarz and Penelope Gillette. Topic: The FFSC Sequencing Project and the Santa Cruz Mycoflora Project.
About out speakers:
Christian Schwarz spends his time collecting, photographing, researching, writing and teaching about mushrooms. He and Noah Siegel are nearly finished writing the upcoming field guide "Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast", and he is intensively working on a web database to document the mushrooms of Santa Cruz County http://www.scmycoflora.org
He also writes a blog - Notes of a Mycophile http://www.mycobratpack.tumblr.com.
Fungi satisfy his curiosity with their seemingly endless forms (from the grotesque to the bizarre to the sublime). He has travelled in search of fungi throughout the United States, as well as in Costa Rica, Mexico, and Europe. Besides general taxonomy, he is interested in Citizen Science and mycofloristic projects.
Penelope Gillette is a natural history enthusiast who has been working with Christian Schwarz and Adam Ryska to establish a Myco-Herbarium as part of the Santa Cruz Mycoflora Project. She graduated last spring in the Environmental Studies Department at UCSC, where she interned for Chris Lay at the Museum of Natural History Collections working with lichens. Fungi are especially fascinating to Penelope because of their cryptic nature, under-appreciated beauty, and immense importance to the "circle (and sustainability) of life".
Environmental interpretation and conservation are also important to Penelope: she hopes to incorporate all of her learnings about fungi and other aspects of natural history to help others find and develop connections and relationships with the land (i.e. the natural, more than human, world).
Penielope was responsible for the lichen ID we so enjoyed at our 2015 Fungus Fair.
TALK TITLE AND DESCRIPTION:
The FFSC Sequencing Project and the Santa Cruz Mycoflora
The Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz is helping push forward the boundaries of citizen science. Come learn more about the model, functioning, and results of the UCSC Herbarium Sequencing Project. Our club is well on the way to assembling a mycoflora Santa Cruz County. Christian and Penelope will talk about the project as well as discuss ways that amateurs, professionals, and clubs can collaborate in the future of taxonomy, systematics, and ecology.