CVN’s November webinar was Establishing a baseline of microplastics in marine food webs: a case study in Baynes Sound, B.C., presented by oceanographer Natalie Mahara. If you missed this event or would like to see it again, the recording is now available here. To access it you will need to provide your name and email address.
For more information about this talk, see the announcement in our earlier post.
From an email by Jocie to the Botany Group on November 14.
Cortinarius is the biggest genus of gilled mushrooms in the world, with thousands of species. The Pacific coast is a hotspot for “corts,” with a rich abundance and diversity. A few distinct features of this genus:
Species in this genus come in a variety of sizes and colours. Some have brightly coloured gills (yellow, orange, red), and others have shades of green, lilac or purple. In a shaft of sunlight the gills can be spectacularly bright and satiny. Many more species are brown & dull, and these have a more subtle beauty.
Here are some examples of Cortinarius that I have seen this fall. These are all from four locations: Buttle Lake area, lakes north of Campbell River, the Merville Woods, and Miracle Beach Park. Note that #6 & 7 are a review of the lilac and purple corts discussed by Alison earlier in her debrief on green, blue and purple shrooms.
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From an email by Jocie to the Botany Group on November 10.
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Here are some fly agarics (Amanita muscaria) growing in an unusual spot! (More down the hole, but I didn’t look too closely.) You never know where this cosmopolitan shroom will pop up!
I have seen a variety of button forms of this iconic species…some studded with warts, some hot-orange without warts, and others the size of an orange. Always interesting! Here are photos of some fly agaric forms:
There is nothing else that really looks like the fly agaric, though I was almost fooled by a tricholoma (I think this might be Tricholoma zelleri which in some books is the same thing as Tricholoma focale) at Merville Woods the other day. It was large and bright orange, but had a more slimy cap, and scaly stipe.
On May 14 of this year, CVN’s guest speaker Dr. John Reynolds presented a very informative webinar on how to use the iNaturalist online platform for recording and viewing nature observations from around the world. Following the tutorial part of the presentation, John discussed and showed examples of the BC Parks project in iNaturalist.
If you missed this presentation (or want to see it again), a recording is available at this location. You only need to provide your name and email address to have access to it.
iNaturalist is photo-based — just take a photo of any animal, plant or fungus that you observe and upload it to the platform. It has both a smartphone app and a website. Anybody can use the system. If you can’t provide an identification of the species yourself, iNaturalist has a recognition function that can suggest the identity. Other members will help with the identification if needed, and after another member confirms the identification, your observation becomes “research grade” and can be used by researchers.
Many geographically defined “projects” exist in iNaturalist. Using the location information associated with your photo, iNaturalist automatically adds it to any relevant projects.
CVN strongly encourages our members to participate in iNaturalist, and this presentation is a great way to get started. Also, you can find references to other iNaturalist resources in this earlier post.
Comox Valley Nature is pleased to host a free online lecture by Natalie Mahara. The lecture entitled “Establishing a baseline of microplastics in marine food webs: a case study in Baynes Sound, B.C.” is on Sunday November 15, 2020, 7:00 – 9:00pm.
Given the current situation with the Covid-19 virus, Comox Valley Nature has made arrangements to have a live, online webinar for Natalie’s presentation. You will need to pre-register:
Microplastics have emerged as one of the most ubiquitous global pollutants and can enter the marine food web either via direct consumption or by trophic transfer by consuming animals that have taken up microplastics. Researchers from the University of British Columbia worked closely with the Association for Denman Island Marine Stewards and the K’ómoks Guardian Watchmen in 2019 to establish a baseline of microplastic concentration and composition in and around Baynes Sound, and to estimate microplastic consumption and uptake by zooplankton, larval herring, and juvenile herring.
Natalie is a biological oceanographer with a particular fondness for the smallest components of marine food webs. Born and raised in Vancouver, Natalie chose to study at the University of British Columbia for her BSc and MSc degrees where she developed her passion for the interdisciplinary field of oceanography. She has worked on projects including describing estuarine plankton dynamics, understanding how zooplankton communities range across productivity regimes, reporting microplastics in marine food webs, and untangling the mystery of juvenile salmon diets.
This is an excellent opportunity for the public to learn more about the potential impacts of microplastics in our area.
If you are new to Comox Valley Nature, find out more about us here.
Although CVN lectures are free, donations from non-members who attend are always appreciated.
From an email by Jocie to the Botany Group on November 8.
The “shroom season” is winding down, and we will move on to other topics soon, but not quite yet!
Here are a few fungi in the genus Tricholomopsis. As far as I know, there are only 2 species in this genus in our area. Both of these usually grow on rotten conifer wood.
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From an email by Jocie to the Botany Group on November 7.
Many of you have likely heard about the discovery of the death cap mushroom in the Comox Valley. Here is some more information from Alison M.:
Re: the confirmation of the death cap Amanita phalloides in Comox, obviously my earlier comment on its not having been seen in the valley should be corrected. It was found in association with Corylus avellana, hazelnut trees from Mack Laing’s orchard, so clearly in keeping with its preference for hardwoods of European origin.
I am assuming that the spores came from an introduced ornamental, with a variety of vectors possibly including deer or squirrels. It would be interesting to know how long the mycelium could have been present without fruiting.
For further information, see web pages at the following sources:
From an email by Jocie to the Botany Group on October 31.
During these days of social distancing it’s heartening to see troops of gregarious fungi gathering in the woods…quite heedless of human disasters.
Here are some groups and clusterings I’ve come across this fall in various locations: Miracle Beach Park, Rosewall Creek trail, Ralph River campground & Shepherd’s creek trail, and Bevan trails (along the upper Puntledge).
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1. Pholiota terrestris.
2. Sulphur tuft (Hypholoma fasciculare).
3. Fried chicken (Lyophyllum decastes).
4. Lake’s boletus (Boletus lakeii).
5. Honey mushroom (Armillaria sp.).
6. Xeromphalina sp.
From an email by Jocie to the Botany Group on October 24.
There are some spectacular displays of “big laughing gym”, also known as “western jumbo gym” (Gymnopilus ventricosus) at Seal Bay Park. You can find it about 3/4 of the way down the main beach trail (on the right) that descends down the ravine. Just before the beach, fork to the right and just past the little bridge (just before the beach) there are several more clumps on the left.
The common name comes from the hallucinogenic properties that some other members of this genus have. However, Gymnopilus ventricosus is actually not psychoactive.
This shroom grows in bright yellow clusters on rotting logs, snags and stumps. Older specimens have a distinctive ring.
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From an email by Jocie to the Botany Group on October 23.
Lobsters & corals bring to mind sea creatures, but these are actually just strange, exotic-looking fungi!
My Mom, Betty, and I were having a great time looking at shrooms in the Buttle Lake area last weekend, and happened upon a patch of lobsters, all with their own unique character (see photos #1-4). The bright salmon-colour is quite a knockout!
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Note that the lobster is a combination of two fungus species: Hypomyces lactifluorum, which is a parasite that forms an orange crust on Russula brevipes (a rather boring looking white shroom). Young lobsters are considered a good edible.
In the same area there was an array of colourful corals (photos #5-8), including one that formed a large mass (last photo).
