SymbiosisThe newsletter of the Prairie States Mushroom Club

Volume 35:3 Fall http://iowamushroom.org

©

Great Forays - PlentyRainy, A LittleSlippery and a lot ofFungi by Dave Layton

From the Editor:What Mushrooms Do

by Dave Layton

2018 has been a fabulous year for Iowa’s mushroomswith all the rain we’ve had. We documented many unusualspecies for the Mycoflora project and Sarah DeLong-Duhon was able to submit the 30 required samples for theNAMFP (North American Mycoflora Project) in time toapply for and be awarded the second round of funding for2019. Congratulations to Sarah and all who participated inthe project! If you weren’t able to participate, or happento be a new member, here’s an explanation from theproject website (http://mycoflora.org):

The North American Mycoflora Project is acollaboration between professional mycologists andcitizen scientists to identify and map the distribution ofmacrofungi throughout North America. It allows thescientific community to tap into the vast amount ofknowledge and data amassed by individuals andmycology clubs, and can provide a new focus foramateur efforts.

(cont. on pg. 9)

PSMC Forays were all great this year, starting with ascrub hillside with morels popping and ending with anancient log covered with more Hericium coralloides thaneveryone could possibly want. FYI: That Hericium wasfound because I went exactly the opposite direction Ithought I was on a trail.

Participating in the Mycoflora project made forays evenmore interesting with a lot of crawling around getting fieldphotographs. We had amazing amounts of rain thissummer. Unfortunately one foray even got flooded out.

For me twoforays stoodout. They bothwere on thetail-end ofmajor rains withthe weatherimproving afterthe foraysstarted. Thefinal foray at

Eden Valley stood out for edibles including the previouslymentioned Hericium. Some other abundant edibles were:Laetiporus, Grifola, Ischnoderma, oysters andEntoloma abortivatum. There were also a number ofunusual mushrooms such as a single Hygrophorus russula.It’s a good edible so others may have already beenharvested, and there were some interesting Gymnopilus.Overall around 50 species were identified at that foray.

Ho, Ho, HoMerry - huh?

photo by:Roger Heidt

(cont. on pg. 9)

Glens picture in Merril Boots’ One Trail Project

2

I love oak trees. I also love finding themany mushroom species that grow onthem or in association with them. Itseems that almost everythingmushrooms do in nature they also dowith oaks. Whether they’resymbiotically beneficial to oaks(mycorrhizal), decaying dead wood(saprobic) or feeding on live tissue(parasitic), they fascinate me and I loveto harvest many for food. But, even as Ienjoy eating parasitic honey mushroomsthat were harvested from the trunk of aliving oak, I know that oak’s days arenumbered and I feel a little sad.

I’ve seen entire stands of oak decimatedwith nothing left but dead wood and thetell-tale rhizomes of honey mushroomsblackening the surface where the barkhas fallen off. I’ve also seen where aliving tree can be infested withLaetiporus in dead branches but neveraffect the living tree. I collected it froman infested main dead limb of an oldcherry tree 40 years ago. I harvested itfor several years till the limb fell off. Therest of the tree remains healthy today.Of course fungi causing limbs to fall cancreate their own set of problems aroundstructures and people. Of all themushrooms that affect oaks, however,the one I wonder about the most isGrifola frondosa or just Grifola.

I’ve been familiar with Grifola for along time, but it’s just been in the lasttwo decades that I’ve gotten better atspotting it and finding it in abundance.We enjoy eating it many ways and theidea that it may have health benefitsseems like a plus. Every year I freeze aquantity of it, insuring that we have wildmushrooms as often as we want allwinter long.

Grifola and Oak by Dave Layton

In 2007, I found a huge ancient oaksurrounded by clumps of Grifola.Before harvesting, I just looked at thetree and meditated on how much hadchanged in its life-time of possiblyover 200 years. Then I wondered ifits days were now numbered becauseof an obviously major fungal infection.Its crown had some deadwood, but,for the most part it looked prettyhealthy. I became obsessed withknowing what the Grifola was doingto that oak which I called the “spiritoak.” I searched for any info I could,but what I found was conflicting.

I had seen Grifola on dead stumpsso I knew it was saprobic. I soonlearned that on living trees it mainlyinhabits heartwood, which generallydies off naturally. When a fungus eatsonly the dead wood on a live tree it’salso considered saprobic. However,some saprophytes are also parasiticand Grifola frondosa is consideredone of those by many.

The first info I read from Iowamycologists painted a somewhatominous picture of Grifola as aparasite. In his book, A Guide toKansas Mushrooms Dean Abeldiscusses pouring buckets of waterladen with mushroom spores in hisyard to see if they might propagate.Next he says, “One might think twiceabout infecting prized trees with woodrotting fungi however. I never pourwater filled with Grifola frondosaspores close to our oaks” (p. 57). Inanother book, Mushrooms andOther Fungi of theMidcontinental United States(Huffman, Tiffany, and Knaphus)write, “Grifola causes a white rot and

(cont. on pg. 3)

Killed by honey mushrooms

Living with Grifola, honey mushroomsand other parasites

3

butt rot in living trees”(p.197). David Arora is even moreominous in Mushrooms Demystifed when he says, “Itcauses a delignifying butt rot of both the heartwood andsapwood of its host” (p. 565). MushroomExpert.com byMichael Kuo seems to concur. Kuo says simply thatGrifola is, “parasitic and possibly saprobic, causing whitebutt rot.”

Tom Volk’s website is much more informative andintriguing where he says,

Grifola is a parasite of the oak tree, getting itsnutrients from the roots. Fortunately, it is a“good” parasite, not killing its food source butkeeping it alive as long as possible in order tomaximize its own life. Unfortunately, most ofthe time the host tree eventually dies, probablyfrom a combination of the Grifola infectionand environmental stresses such as droughtand wind.

Several other sources simply called Grifola “weaklyparasitic” without elaborating. All of this information ledme to wonder how detrimental Grifola really is to oaks.

It didn’t seem like Grifola infection was really detrimentalto the spirit oak. The crown was too vibrant, the base toosolid. The tree just looked too alive and healthy, eventhough the trunk had many lumps and boles. If Grifolawas weakening this tree it seemed that other factors mustbe keeping it strong. Since Grifola tends to grow on veryold oak trees that have had to survive other challenges formany years, could it be possible that, even as Grifolaconsumes oak trees, it also somehow provides somethingbeneficial to their overall health?

The more I learned about the relationship betweenGrifola and Oaks the more complex that relationshipbecame. Paul Stamets didn’t think Grifola at all harmful.In his book Mycelium Running, How MushroomsCan Help Save the World, he states, “Although found atthe bases of dying trees and sometimes emerging fromrotting woods, this mushroom is viewed by mostmycologists as a saprophyte, exploiting tree tissue dyingfrom other causes. Massive oaks, apparently healthy, oftensport this mushroom at their base” (p. 236). Then Stametsincreased the intrigue by saying, “—Maitake may protectits host trees from aggressive parasitic fungi. I would not

Grifola and Oak (cont. from pg. 2)

be surprised if some varieties of this mushroom are foundto grow endophytically protecting the trees from plaguefungi” (p. 239). What? Grifola could actually be good foroaks? I had to learn more!

I set about learning inseveral ways. I askedGrifola oaklandowners of manydecades if they eversaw problems causedby Grifola - Nope.Next I learned howthe tap root and heartwood of oaks diesout naturally as thetrees focus theirenergy into lateralfeed roots that extendfar beyond the crownand provide largeoaks with their realstability. Grifoladoesn’t affect thoseroots but stays at thebase of the treehollowing out theheartwood. Also the hollowing of trees is beneficial notonly to forest inhabitants, it can sometimes benefit the treesthemselves by making them more flexible in the wind.

I also researched what tree professionals say aboutGrifola. Here’s a typical opinion. When asked aboutGrifola’s detriment to trees, Dr. Chris Luley of UrbanForestry LLC, replied, “Tell them to warm up the sautépan and not to worry about it too much.”

Another thing I did which maybe wasn’t too smart was cuta slice of wood where the fruiting body was emergingdirectly. The wood was discolored and swollen rightwhere the fungus emerged but seemingly unaffected even ahalf inch away. Unfortunately, I learned that wounds likethe one I caused from the cut are how pathogens get intotrees. I worried for a year until I got back to the spirit oakand saw that the wound was not only healed but the scarwas barely visible.

(cont. on pg. 10)

4

A book reviewby Mike Krebill

About author Tradd Cotter

Tradd’s interest in mushrooms began at age 20 when hismother suggested that he take a 10-minute visit to a nearbymushroom farm. He was in college, interested in biology,and living with his parents. Not impressed at first glancewith the cinder block walls and the metal roof, he saw thesterilizer unit that cooked the growing media, and traveledon to the colonization room. Finally, they arrived at thefruiting room, which Tradd described as a strange foggyroom, where row out of row of shiitakes protruded fromsawdust blocks. The magic and excitement and enthusiasmhit him, and he began asking the owner question afterquestion. The owner caught up with him as he was aboutto pull out of the parking lot and head home. “Would youlike to work here?” he panted.

Now, more than 22 years later, Tradd has become anauthority in the field. He is a professional mycologist and microbiologist. He founded Mushroom Mountain in 1996 withhis wife Olga. At first, they began working out of their apartment. Their purpose is to explore applications of mushroomsin industry, for bioremediation of various pollutants, and as natural alternatives to chemical pesticides.

Last year, they graduated to a 50,000 square foot lab, classrooms, and indoor growing facility. Its purpose is to exploreapplications of mushrooms in industry, for bioremediation of various pollutants, and as natural alternatives to chemicalpesticides. They currently maintain over 250 species of fungi for this purpose and for food production. In addition to atour of their FDA and EPA certified building, home videos on their website (http://mushroommountain.com) andFacebook page (https://www.facebook.com/MushroomMountainFarm) are worth watching. One of them that I justwatched is clearly a home video, but it is fascinating nonetheless: (https://www.facebook.com/MushroomMountainFarm/videos/10156064575281617/),

This one is particularly appropriate for this time of the year. It not only shows appreciated gifts of inoculated spawn foreasy culturing of mushrooms, but also how to get them started. (These are available online from their website, and theymay have the largest selection in the country from which to choose.) On this home video, Tradd even does a show andtell on how to turn wrapping paper and cardboard waste from packaging into blue oyster mushrooms and compost forthe garden or worm bin. All of this is non-technical. He is an experienced presenter, and the facility that he and Olgaoperate in South Carolina has become a mecca for travelers and those wanting to get into becoming certified to ownand operate their own lab and production facility. They intend to set up an online teaching facility next year, which will beknown as Mushroom Mountain University.

Tradd has written several books. This one contains technical information, yet explains things very well. The subtitle sumsit up: “Simple to Advanced and Experimental Techniques for Indoor and Outdoor Cultivation.” Part I covers thefundamentals and stages of mushroom cultivation; choosing a mushroom to cultivate; how to handle and store spawn;

(cont. on pg. 11)

5

The 2018 annual meeting of the Prairie States MushroomClub was called to order by Vice President MartyAugustine, as PSMC President Dean Abel was not inattendance. There were eight club members present forthe meeting.

A motion was made, seconded, and approved to movethe previously agreed upon $300 to be spent on theMycoflora DNA project from 2018 to 2019.

PSMC Treasurer Roger Heidt gave a report on the clubfinances. The current balance is $2927.29, a gain of aboutone hundred dollars over the previous year. See theTreasurer’s Report for additional details of the clubfinances.

A motion was made, seconded, and approved to donate$50 to the Clinton County Conservation Board for the useof the Eden Valley Nature Center where we held ourpublic foray and annual meeting.

All 2018 PSMC officers agreed to run for reelection tothe same position for 2019. Since no other club membersexpressed an interest in becoming an officer, all currentclub office holders were reelected by acclamation. SarahDelong-Duhon was nominated, seconded, and elected tothe open At-Large Board member position.

Roger passed out forms for anyone interested inparticipating in a stinkhorn project being conducted byMichael Kuo.

A lengthy discussion occurred concerning the possibility ofcreating a mushroom calendar again. A motion was made,seconded, and approved to provide club funds topurchase calendars in 2019 if one gets designed. Note thatthe calendars would be for 2020.

A motion was made, seconded, and approved to adjourn.

Prairie States Mushroom Club2018 Annual Report

Beginning Balance: $2836.24

Income:Membership Dues (2018 & 2019) $ 430.00Donation (Janet Monk) 40.00Total Income $ 470.00

Expenses:Web Site $ 119.40NAMA Dues 30.00SmugMug (Photo site) 71.40Postage 33.99Printing (Newsletter) 48.77Mileage 71.88Office Supplies $ 3.52Total Expenses $ 378.96

Ending Balance $2927.29

$300 budgeted for Mycoflora ProjectNone spent in 2018

Membership 31 201812 201943

Minutes of the 2018 Annual Meetingby Glen Schwartz, PSMC Secretary

6

My New Favorite Mushroom: SweetbreadMushroom! By Dave Layton

I have what might be called a bucket list of supposedlydelicious mushrooms that I hope to find in enoughabundance to really explore their edibility. After 45 yearsof mushroom hunting it seemed less and less likely that anysuch mushroom find would turn up in a woods I’ve huntedfor decades. Yet some times the stars just line up.

And so they did this fall. The honey mushrooms,knotholes, Grifola and blewits in this wood were prettymuch played out, but I returned to photograph oaks formy Grifola and Oaks article. I was soon pleasantlysurprised by oysters and velvet stems (wild enoki). Then Inoticed some white funnel shaped caps, one leavingsalmon colored spores on the cap below it, so I knewright away they weren’t clitocybes. I thought sweetbreadmushroom (Clitopilus prunulus), but —

I’d found similar mushrooms often and I’m sure I’d foundsweetbreads before too, but I never found them in a freshabundance and I never put enough effort into identifyingthem to be certain what I’d found was not a poisonousentoloma or other unknown. Plus I didn’t have amicroscope.

That all changed this year. I found two more patches thatday harvesting enough fresh ones to make a couple meals,so it was worth my effort to get a positive ID. Fortunately,I now have a microscope, which made confirmation easy.The spores were football-shaped, with some showingdark lengthwise lines or ridges meaning Clitopilus.Entoloma spores are angular. I’d scored a bucket listmushroom!

Once I saw the spore shape it seemed that the identifyingmacro features became more obvious. Those features onfresh Sweetbreads include:

Cream to rusty gills that detach easily from the capand run down the stem slightly.

Salmon or brownish pink spore print. Fortunately,these can produce abundant spores within hoursof picking.

White, gray, or flesh-colored cap with in-rolledand occasionally lobed cap margins.

Cap feels like soft suede. The feel is distinctive ifyou have other fungi to compare it to.

Distinctive somewhat fruity sweetbread doughrising smell – hence the common name:sweetbread mushroom or miller.

It also helped my identification that this year I’d alreadyseen several species that these might be confused with,including Lyophyllum, Entoloma and 3 Clitocybes:rivulosa, odora, and subconnexa.. Clitocybes ,especially rivulosa, can look so much like sweetbreadthat only sweetbread’s spore color can provide certain IDat first. Once I was certain of some by their spore color, Iused smell and cap texture to make sure every cap Ipicked was the same. This is especially important becauseC. rivulosa could be growing right next to it, and rivulosais dangerously poisonous, but rivulosa has anunwholesome faintly mealy rancid flour smell.

So how good is Sweetbread mushroom? Outstanding!It’s in the same league as morels, ceps, and candy caps. Itis a perfect texture, tender and easy to digest, with a richbut light mushroom flavor.

To test new varieties of mushrooms I sauté a couple capsin a little butter. These were surprisingly good. Next Isautéed a few more and tried them on grilled cheese. Sallyand I gave them two thumbs up! Finally, I included themin a large batch of mixed mushrooms with sweetbreadsbeing the largest component. They are definitely betterthan Grifola, blewits and knothole mushrooms. In myopinion, they’re even better than shaggymanes,Lyophyllum, and oyster mushrooms. Comparing them tooysters is kind of an apples and oranges comparison, andSally might disagree since oyster mushrooms are one ofher favorites.

A couple days later I went back and scoured the areawhere I’d found them before. Sure enough I found severalmore fruitings, enough to cook and freeze a couplepackets plus make a wonderful dinner omelet.Unfortunately, I found these a week or so too late.

(cont. on pg. 8)

7

Enchanted Grifola and Hen of the WoodsJerky

8

Marinade ingredients (Makes about 2 cups marinade, enough for a large hen.)

1 c. sweet apple cider 1/2 tsp. ground fennel (Alternative, finely chop3/4 c. low sodium soy sauce, or tamari 1/2 tsp. fennel seeds - Mike Krebill)2 - 4 cloves of garlic, chopped 5 Tbsp. maple syrup1/2 tsp. ground white pepper 1/2 - 1 Tbsp. Sriracha chili-garlic sauce

1. Place all marinade ingredients in a blender, and puree for a minute. Pour the marinade in a glass or non-reactiveshallow pan, preferable one with a cover.

2. Clean the hen of the woods mushrooms, making 1/8” thick slices of the core and the larger fronds. All parts can beused, but they will dehydrate at different rates and shrink up quite small.

3. Boil the mushroom for 10 minutes, and drain completely. Place the boiled hen pieces in the marinate while still hot,and refrigerate for 4 - 6 hours.

4. Remove the pieces of hen from the marinade and drain the excess liquid off before arranging on dehydrator trays. Ifdrying in the oven, use wire racks placed on a sheet pan. Arrange the marinated mushroom on the trays and dehy-drate at 120 - 130 for 6 - 12 hours, until dried and leathery. The time will vary depending on the thickness andsizes of the pieces, so check it often.

5. Store in an airtight jar or vacuum pack.

We often have more mushroom pieces than the dehydrator can handle at once, so we use the marinade one more timeto flavor another batch, the second batch getting soaked a bit longer, until we use up all the hen.

Hen of the Woods Jerkyoriginal recipe created by the 3-Foragers in 2013

Though there were many still for me to harvest, many more were too far-gone and they were the big ones. I didn’twaste those either though. I threw many of them like Frisbees as far as I could, trying to spread their spores and createnew patches for next year. I wonder what someone would have thought if they saw me rooting around in the woodsthen throwing old floppy mushrooms everywhere. Would they realize how insanely happy I was, or would they just thinkme insane?

My New Favorite... (cont. from pg. 6)

Salmonsporeson capin field

Largespecimen

Washedready tocook

9

The Maquoketa caves foray was even more fascinating forme. We identified over 60 species, more than half of whichwere mycorrhizal. Actually, the abundance of fungi in onepatch of woods kept us from going to far. The amount ofunusual fungi also really absorbed our attention, so muchso that possibly some common species that we always findmay not even have been documented.

All of thisyear’sforays werewellattendedwith manynew faces.Theamazingcolorfulfungispread on apicnic table

near the entrance to Maquoketa caves drew dozens ofinterested visitors including Andy Abeyta who wasphotographing trail users for the Merrill Boots One TrailProject. It just so happened that Glen was wearing Merrill

Great forays... (cont. from cover)

From the Editor... (cont. from cover)Key components of this project include carefuldocumentation and preparation of specimens(vouchering), depositing these specimens in aherbarium, and DNA sequencing to complement themorphological observations that amateur mycologistsalready use.

In this issue, Mike Krebill reviews Tradd Cotter’s book,Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation(Chelsea Green Publishing, Vermont, 2014.) Cotter, whoraises mushrooms indoors and out, describes histechniques, and provides advice on marketing for thosewho want to consider it as a business. He explains whatmushrooms do and can be made to do in terms of

mushroom products and cutting-edge applications. Theseinclude mushroom-infused beer, wine and spirits, ediblemushroom powders and medicinal extracts, antimicrobialcutting boards, packaging, insulation, biotextiles, andmycoremediation of toxic wastes.

We’ll also discuss what I believe Grifola does to trees inmy article Grifola and Oaks that details my 10-year studyof that relationship. Finally, I’ll share what finding a newdelicious mushroom does to me – Think happy dance.We hope you will enjoy learning some of the fascinatingthings that mushrooms do along with reading about greatPSMC Forays this year, and will feel rewarded when youtry a couple of tasty Grifola recipes we like.

Boots and Andy noticed how photogenic Glen really is.So now Glen’s mug can be viewed at the Merrill BootsOne Trail Project https://onetrail.merrell.com/

These forays were amazing. However even a June foray atIndian Creek Nature Center had fascinating fungi.Including Volvariella Bombycina which was one of manymushrooms sampled for MycoFlora. Personally, I believethat PSMC forays are constantly getting better forcamaraderie, scientific discovery, public education and allaround fungi fun!

Peope fascinated by colorful fungifound at Maquoketa Caves

Silky Volvaria (Volvariellybombycina)

Several others harvested all theHericium they wanted at EdenValley before this lady got there.

10

I thank my lovely librarian wife for my biggestbreakthrough. While she was a library student at theUniversity of Iowa she came home one day with anobscure book for tree professionals: Fungal Strategiesof Wood Decay in Trees. My breakthrough came in twomain passages. The first being selective delignificationwhich targets the tree’s lignin but leaves cellulose and vitalcell structure such as fiber tracheids intact. FungalStrategies states:

Fiber tracheids are cell structures that arefundamental for transporting water andnourishment, meaning Grifola does not appear toinhibit an oak’s life process severely even nearareas of infection. Microscopic photos showGrifola growing in the lignin (tough connectivetissue) in and around the cell walls but not in thelumen or interior of the cell where water andnutrients are transported. Fiber tracheids arefundamental for transporting water andnourishment.

The next importantobservation fromFungal Strategieswas barrier zones. Apicture from the bookshowed a section oftrunk infected withGrifola at the heartbut surrounded andpossibly contained bya moist orangecolored barrier zone.That zone was createdbecause the Grifolatriggered the tree’simmune system. In thispicture, the vastmajority of the trunkappears to be healthywood. The book callsbarrier zones an

important strategy of trees for fighting fungal infectionsaying, “One important method is reaction or barrierzones. Sometimes these zones actually prevent the spreadof fungal infection.” The discoloring and swelling that I sawaround the mycelial strand in my slice from the spirit oak

was actually a barrier zone caused by the tree’s immunesystem reaction to the Grifola. It might help to account forthe total healing of the cut I made in just one season. It’svery possible that this boosted immune system reactioncould also help protect oaks from other pathogens – buthow was I to prove this? Maybe I’d see something in thechanges in trees over time. That was 10 years ago.

During my research on Grifola’s method of tree decay, Ilearned about a Visual Tree Assessment (VTA). A VTA isa tool that professionals use to determine the health andstructural soundness of a tree. It’s performed in stages.The initial stage of a VTA involves assessing externalappearance of a tree and its immediate environment. Thisincludes looking for flat spots or irregularities in the trunk,which could indicate root damage on that side, crown die-off, soil irregularities and erosion and windward soilcracking indicating fractured roots. Though I’m notqualified to perform later stages of VTA, I could use theinitial stage assessment with trees I found Grifola around.I did initial VTAs of many trees and repeated the VTAsmany times over the decade. I found no change in any ofthe trees during that time. However, one very hollow treethat appeared to have both Grifola and Laetiporus blewdown in a windstorm last year.

Possibly more tellingly I witnessed some living oaks thathad become infested with honey mushrooms die within afew years of infestation, but two gnarly old oaks in thesame woods were infested with both honey mushroomsand Grifola. These trees had huge burls, gaps showing thehollow center, and exposed dead wood where bark wasmissing, but their crowns had as much life as they had adecade earlier. One of those trees displayed other fungalpathogens too.

Whatever the honey mushrooms and other pathogenswere doing, they weren’t killing the trees – not yetanyway. Could this be because the trees were keeping thepathogens from the live sapwood because of Grifola-induced barrier zones? Maybe Stamets was ontosomething.

Two more things I’ve learned in my last decade ofobservations. The first was that trees infected by Grifolamore often than not display other environmental stressors,

Grifola and Oak (cont. from pg. 3)

(cont. on pg. 11)

11

especially younger trees. This may be as simple ascrowding or wind damage or even cow hoofs or mowersdamaging the base of their trunks. I’ve paid more attentionto these factors after learning about VTAs. Many of thesetrees had long since made peace with the original stressorsand seem quite healthy, but I’ve also found Grifola at thebase of recently dead trees that were obviously killed bysome serious pathogen – maybe oak wilt. WhateverGrifola does to or for oaks it didn’t help these. It’s not apanacea.

I’ve also learned that many more trees are infected withGrifola than I find fruiting bodies around. Some of mytrees fruit faithfully every year, but many others fruitedyears ago and not again. Still others have fruited only acouple times in the last decade. Also, I’m not the onlyGrifola hunter out there. It’s grown in popularity aroundhere – due in small part to my telling friends about it. Iknow I’m not seeing some Grifola because others have

Grifola and Oak (cont. from pg. 10)

already harvested it. Plus the season can go from earlySeptember into November so some woods I just couldn’tget to at the right time. Taking all that into account, I’dguess that 20 – 30% of mature oaks are infected withGrifola in some of my favorite stands. For the most partthose trees look good. Conversely, in the woods that hadbeen decimated by honey fungus I found no Grifola.Could there be a correlation? Honey mushrooms grew inthe healthy woods too – just seldom on oak trunks. Rightnow I’m just guessing about all this.

So I’ll keep watching my Grifola trees and making VTAs.Maybe in another decade, I’ll have a better idea of justwhat Grifola does to those trees. In the meantime I planto eat plenty of Grifola. No matter what it does for theimmune system of trees, I’m hoping it helps to keep myown immune system strong and improves my chances ofmaking it to those future decades.

cultivating mushrooms outdoors on logs, stumps, andwood chips; cultivating mushrooms indoors on sterilizedmedia; and natural pest control and disease management.Part II considers innovative applications and productsusing fungi: recycling, composting, and vermicomposting;urban mushroom cultivation; shroomin’ off the grid;products and cutting-edge applications; mushroom-infusedbeer (four recipes are included), wine, and spirits;marketing; and fungi in the classroom (If I hadencountered this book before retiring from 35 years ofteaching science, I would have tried several of Tradd’ssuggested activities.) Part III focuses on advancedtechnique and research beginning with setting up your ownlaboratory; starting cultures and generating spawn; storing

A Book Review (cont from pg. 4)your cultures; advanced cultivation and research strategies;(The following bold-faced italics are my own) MorelCultivation: Research Update; and introduction tomycoremediation. Part IV is a four-page introduction toeach of 23 genera and a combination of conks that aredealt with together. Finally, following the acknowledgments,there is a glossary, bibliography and a one-page list ofresources and suppliers.

The photography, with one exception, is excellent. The oneexception is the spore print on page 178. Perhaps Traddand Olga will want to replace it if the book should bereprinted.

Prairie States Mushroom Clubc/o Roger Heidt125 Timber Ln.Robins, IA 52328-9632

PSMC Web Site:http://iowamushroom.org

The name “Symbiosis©” and contents of thenewsletter “Symbiosis©, The Newsletter of thePrairie States Mushroom Club (PSMC)” are thesole property of the PSMC and can not bereproduced without written permission of thePSMC Board of Directors.