BY JULIA CARR
Beyond Micophobia
Loving fungi at the Mushroom Festival.
S
hards of sun fell through skylights at
Mount Pisgah’s new white oak
pavilion and illuminated hundreds of
mushroom species sprawled across long
tables set up at the 23rd annual Mushroom
and Plant Festival on Sunday. By 10 am
already hundreds of parked cars lined the hill
climbing up to the arboretum where a com-
munity formed as vast as the mushroom
kingdom itself and gorged on portobello
burgers, slurped chanterelle chowder, sipped
apple cider, and rummaged through local
plant and mushroom species.
The festival was sponsored by Cascade
Mycological Society, an educational non-
profit organization of beginning to expert
level mycologists. This year’s show of a total
of 350 mushroom species was the second
highest ever and attracted prominent mush-
room community figures like Nancy Weber
of Corvallis, daughter of world-renowned
mycologist Alexander Smith.
In the afternoon, Weber was approached
by an elated mushroom enthusiast, Molly
Widmere, who carried a palm-sized speci-
men of human feces in a Ziploc bag collect-
ed because it hosted a rare species of “cup
fungus.” As Widmere approached her mentor
with the specimen, the fungus “poofed” (a
temperature-induced spore release) in
Weber’s face just as she chomped down on a
granola bar. Unfazed, Weber continued
chewing, identified the species, and went
about her business.
The feces species is an example of the
vast role the mushroom kingdom plays in our
world. “From edibles to decomposers,” said
Marcia Peeters, biology instructor at LCC,
“Fungus helps us so we aren’t walking on
layers of detritus — even our own.”
Other unidentified species weren’t as
crude. People of all ages lined up with vari-
ous fungi to be identified at a station where
experts like Joe Spivak of Lorane, cultivator
and collector for 20 years and LCC instructor
for seven, stayed busy throughout the six-
hour festival. Spivak is one of many who say
we live in a “mycophobic society” (fear of
mushrooms).
Parents warn children not to touch
mushrooms because they are poisonous,
when actually you cannot get poisoned by
touching any species of mushrooms. There
are more than a thousand species in the
So in order to avoid being poisoned,
know your species! Again, most mushrooms
are edible, although they won’t necessarily
taste good. Others range from slightly poi-
sonous to downright deceiving. Some poi-
sonous ones even replicate the gourmet edi-
ble mushrooms. Chanterelles have a doppel-
ganger that if eaten by mistake will leave you
with a nasty stomachache, wishing you had
double-checked your mushroom manual.
One such manual, known as the mushroom
hunter’s bible, is David Aurora’s Mushrooms
Demystified. Naturally, size, shape, color and
odor all contribute to species identification,
Freeman Rowe, a local mush-
room community legend,
identifies a Ganoderma mush-
room found in Texas.
Oregon forests alone, and according to
Spivak, who’s cultivated and hunted mush-
rooms for 20 years, most of them are not
poisonous. “And of the poisonous mush-
rooms, most do not kill,” Spivak said.
Granted, some amanitas (the white-spot-
ted, red mushroom under the hookah-
smoking caterpillar in Alice in
Wonderland) are so potent they could
destroy your liver.
but another major factor is where they grow.
The mushroom is the fruit of mycelium,
the largest organism in the world. Phellinus
weirii grows around Douglas firs in the
Cascades and can exceed a mile across.
Mycelia live underground in a symbiotic
relationship with trees. A Douglas fir, for
example, cannot grow above six inches high
without mycelium to transfer water and min-
erals to its roots.
Jolene Marl of Horton cultivates shiitakes
(Lentinus edodes) and makes tinctures for her
business, Cougar Ridge. She drills holes into
white oak tree logs and inserts dowel plugs
impregnated with mycelium. Customary in
Chinese medicine, shiitake tinctures have
amino acids and vitamins that help boost the
immune system and lower blood levels of
cholesterol.
So where did all these mushroom advo-
cates come from? Who’s responsible for
much of Eugene’s outpouring of mycological
knowledge? The man who started the mush-
room festival nearly three decades ago:
Freeman Rowe.
“I’ve watched it start as a baby and grow
into a fully functioning adult. It comforts me
to know that after I go, the festival is strong
enough to carry on without me,” said the 75-
year-old Rowe from behind the species iden-
tification table under the pavilion.
As Rowe and I sat discussing the evolving
Oregon mushroom scene, sparkle-eyed fans
interrupted us repeatedly to grasp his hand
and say hello like old friends. Even after all
these years, Rowe would shuffle in his seat
with raised eyebrows, speak in excited tones,
and share innumerable stories about the
mushroom kingdom.
Several mycologically conscious advo-
cates blossomed under Rowe’s 30-year pro-
fessorship at LCC, and now work for the
Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Forest
Service, and also infiltrate much of Eugene’s
mushroom community. Rowe said he moti-
vated his students to understand that “The
forest cannot exist without its mushroom
associates.” Rowe taught students to see the
forest and the trees. It’s all one single flour-
ishing entity connected underground by
mycelium and roots, rather than a market
commodity.
Best in Show
Of the 350 total species at the show, 40 of
those were new this year to the festival.
Judged Best in Show: Lyophyllum “Fried
Chicken.” First Place: Phaeolus schweinitzii.
Second Place: Boletus edulis “Porcini”
picked by Jim Boyd.
ew
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NOVEMBER 3, 2005 13