| West Virginia Master Naturalist Class Description
| Title: |
MUSHROOMS |
| Objectives: |
Explore the structure, classification, and ecology of
the larger fungi. Learn
how to safely collect for eating and how to properly
collect for study.
|
| Class type: |
Elective |
| Time: |
2-3 hours |
| Optimal season: |
Summer, fall |
| Materials: |
Basket, knife, waxed paper roll or bags, camera, hand
lens, notebook, field guides,
and if possible a 400x microscope and
food dehydrator
|
| Expected outcomes: |
The student will gain a basic understanding of
- terms for describing mushrooms
and their life histories.
- some of the ways fungi are related
to other organisms in their environment.
- how to safely collect and prepare
wild mushrooms for the dining table.
- how to properly collect fungi
for scientific study, what kinds of notes to take at the time
of collecting, and how to permanently preserve specimens.
- how to approach further study,
including helpful references and organizations.
|
West Virginia Master Naturalist Class Outline
| Title: |
MUSHROOMS |
| Time: |
2-3 hours |
- What is a mushroom?
- Mushroom versus toadstool
- Kingdom Fungi
- Lichens
- The organism
- Spores
- Mycelium
- "Fruiting bodies" mushrooms, etc.
- Overwintering as seeds, underground parts, winter annuals, woody
stems)
- Classification
- Ascomycetes and Basidiomycetes
- Convenient (and sometimes artificial) groups: gilled, toothed, boletes,
polypores, cups, corals, etc.
- Ecology
- Decomposers and parasites
- Mycorrhizae
- Food for wildlife and humans
- How to collect mushrooms
- For food precautions, cooking, preserving
- For study complete specimens, notes, preserving (drying)
- The West Virginia. fungus collection, Davis & Elkins College
Herbarium
- How to learn more
- Books
- Mushroom: The Journal of Wild Mushrooming
- NAMA, West Virginia Mushroom Club, and other organizations
|
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