2020 Mushroom Festival Mycoblitz
Bruce Newhouse and Susie Holmes organized the first CMS sponsored iNaturalist (iNat) mycoblitz for the MPA Mushroom Festival. which ran from October 16th- October 24th. Using the iNat platform was a relatively easy way to continue to involve our citizen and student field explorers who collect mushrooms for the mushroom display each year. All they were asked to collect this year were photographs and upload them to iNaturalist. Because of the way the iNat Mycoloblitz was configured, any observation of a fungus that met the criteria of the mycoblitz (time frame, location boundary, and taxonomy) was included. Some citizen scientists (including the Best in show winner) were totally unaware of the ongoing Mycoblitz or their contribution to it.
Following are the preliminary numbers from the Mycoblitz; which may change after further analysis.
- 356 species
- 2139 observations
- 198 observers
- 82 identifiers; the primary expert identifier was Noah Siegel who put in countless hours.
The contest portion of the Mycoblitz ran from Oct 16th to Oct 23rd in order to allow time for award selection and video recording of the awards. The selection of the award winning species was done by Bruce & Susie with lots of input by Noah Siegel. The Best in Show prize was not awarded this year as the award winner declined to be identified or have their winning photo included. I can say the prize winning mushroom was an Agaricon mushroom (Laricifomes officinalis) that was still firmly attached to a tree. Conservation of wild populations of Agaricon mushrooms is a concern as their habitat in old growth forests is dwindling. Awards that were issued include:
- 1st place – Awarded to Dean Walton for Orange Moss Agaric (Rickenella fibula), pictured top left.
- 2nd place – Awarded to heyrobt (iNat name) for Strawberries & Cream (Hydnellum peckii), picture top middle.
- Rarest – Awarded to corndog (iNat name) for Onygena corvina, grows on and decays animal carcassas, picture top right.
- Chanterelle Grand Slam – Awarded to Sandy Patton for a Cantharellus cascadensis and a Cantharellus subalbidus, pictured bottom left. G
- Most Observations – Awarded to bubles-debary, hchrish200, and ribes2018 (all iNat names).
