What Happens at a Mushroom Foray?

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 with groups heading into a given habitat. Participants spread out along trails and through permitted collection areas, looking carefully at soil, fallen wood, moss, tree bases, leaf litter, and even up into tree canopies.

Beginners quickly discover one of the great advantages of exploring with a group of like-minded mushroom nerds: someone is always noticing something you missed.

Collected specimens may later be brought back to a central location to be organized and examined by beginners and experienced mycologists. Identification tables can transform into extraordinary displays of fungal diversity representing dozens or even hundreds of species found within a relatively small area.

But identification is only one part of the experience.

Forays can include lectures, workshops, photography, cultivation discussions, microscopy, culinary activities and conversations about taxonomy, conservation and toxicology.

They can also contribute to broader scientific discussions.

Since its inception in 1965, NAMA forays have created lists of fungal occurrences around North America. Since 1997, these lists have been enhanced by the efforts of the Voucher Collection Project (VCP) to select one specimen per speciesto be documented as a voucher, with records and preserved material becoming part of a permanent scientific collection. Since 2024, NAMA’s DNA Sequencing Committee (DNAMA) has worked alongside vouchering efforts to obtain molecular data from specimens collected at annual and regional events.

For the individual participant, though, the experience is often much simpler.

You spend time outside with people who are genuinely interested in what is growing around them.

You learn names. You ask questions. You see species you have never encountered before.

And somewhere along the way, a group of strangers standing around a tiny mushroom begins to feel remarkably like a community.

Join NAMA Today or explore our network of affiliate mushroom clubs and find one near you!