By Maya Han, Cultural Programmer for New York Mycological Society Article from The Mycophile Quarterly, April, May, June 2026 Artwork from Daughters of the Forest. Photos in this article are stills from the film unless otherwise noted. In the riveting opening scene of the film Daughters of the Forest, two women—one a wizened centenarian and the […]

By Avery Stempel, Medicinal Mushrooms Committee Article from The Mycophile Quarterly, April, May, June 2026 “Every life comes to an end, when time demands it. A loss of life is to be mourned, but only if the life were wasted…” Time-traveling Dr. Spock in Star Trek, the Animated Series, Season 1, Episode 2 It was quiet,

By Oliver Filialuna and Dr. Andrew Wilson Article from The Mycophile Quarterly, April, May, June 2026 The mycelial network is abuzz with news of a troubling possibility: the decommissioning of the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC), home of the U.S. National Fungus Collection, known under the collection code of BPI1. On April 23, 2026, the

If you have never attended a mushroom foray, imagine part field trip, part outdoor classroom, part biodiversity survey, and part gathering of people who are especially excited about finding fungi. A foray is an organized excursion in which participants search for and study mushrooms and other fungi in a particular area. The event often begins

Wild mushrooms can be fascinating to study and, in the case of correctly identified edible species, both enjoyable to cook and delicious to eat. But they also demand respect. There is no single visual rule that separates edible mushrooms from poisonous ones. Color, insect damage, smell, and folklore are not reliable tests of edibility. That

Mushrooms make extraordinary photographic subjects. They can be brilliantly colorful or nearly invisible. Some tower above the forest floor while others are only a few millimeters across. Gills, pores, scales, droplets, translucent caps and intricate textures offer almost endless possibilities for photography. You do not need expensive equipment to begin. A modern smartphone is capable

You do not have to wait for the perfect combination of rainfall, temperature and forest habitat to watch mushrooms develop. You can grow them yourself. Home mushroom cultivation offers a fascinating way to experience fungal biology at close range. Instead of encountering only the fruiting body, growers can watch mycelium colonize a substrate and eventually

Finding an interesting mushroom in the forest can be exciting. But what if that discovery could still be useful to scientists decades from now? That is the idea behind a voucher specimen. A voucher is a carefully documented physical specimen preserved as a permanent scientific record. In mycology, the process generally begins in the field.

Most fungi spend the majority of their lives out of sight. The mushroom that appears above the soil or on a fallen log is usually only the visible reproductive structure of a much larger fungal organism. Beneath our feet, within wood and around plant roots, fungi participate in some of the most important processes in

Books can teach you terminology. Photographs can introduce you to species. Apps can help organize observations. But few things accelerate your understanding of fungi like going into the field with people who have been studying them for years. That is one of the reasons mushroom clubs remain such an important part of the mycological community.