October General Meeting: Daniel Winkler

? WHEN: 10/21/2015, 7-9 pm
? WHERE: Harvey West Scout House, Harvey West Scout House

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. We are pleased also to announce representatives from Soquel Demonstration Forests will also be joining us to share the latest going ons and will be available to issue permits for those who wish after the meeting.  A discussion of upcoming events will precede our speaker, Daniel Winkler.

Join us for his talk on "Colombia's Mushroom Magic". 

Daniel will share his adventures based on three journeys accompanied by Colombian mycologist, Dr. Tatiana Sanjuanin, the searching for outstanding mushrooms.  Peace is slowly coming to this formerly troubled nation of Colombia. Located at the intersection of Andes, Amazon, and Central Americas.  It is surrounded by both the Pacific and the Caribbean oceans.  Colombia boasts an incredible biodiversity with a rich and diverse flora, fauna and funga (funga= totality of mushrooms).  Lowland tropical rain forests are endowed with strange insect-parasitizing Cordyceps and exotic Xylaria species, colorful Marasmius and much stranger fungal organisms.  In the mountain cloud forest massive Andean oaks are associated with a range of interesting ecto-mycorrhizals, such as Cantharellus, Boletus, Amanita etc, many of these having their southernmost distribution here.  High up in the Páramo fungal diversity is reduced, but Dr. Seuss-like plant life is mind boggling.

Daniel is the author of field guides to Edible Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest and California (both Harbour Publishing, 2011 and 2012) and Amazon Mushrooms with Larry Evans (2014).  He grew up collecting and eating wild mushrooms in the Alps and has been foraging since 20 years in the Pacific Northwest.  He is a volunteer for PSMS as mushroom educator and Vice-President. Daniel trained as a geographer and ecologist and worked on environmental issues of the Tibetan Plateau. Working in Tibet, he realized that Tibet's diverse mushroom industry, especially Cordyceps sinensis, plays a crucial role in rural Tibet and thus has been researching Tibet's ethno-mycology for over 15 years.  He has published over a dozen scientific papers on Tibet’s ecology and ethno-mycology and is a regular contributor to magazines such as Fungi, Mushroom the Journal, etc.  In recent years many articles integrated his prize-winning photos taken during his vast travels. Through his travel agency "MushRoaming" he is organizing mushroom focused eco-tours to Tibet, the Amazon, Colombia, the Alps and the Pacific Northwest. He maintains and continuously adds to his www.Mushroaming.com web page.

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