CMS grant to OSU Herbarium
The mushrooming community is growing, but is still quite a tight knit group. So, word gets around when there is a mushroom related cause that needs attention. The CMS Board recently received an email from CMS member Molly Widmer regarding just such a need. Molly had been conversing with Kimmarie Skondin, the Vice President of the Lincoln County Mycological Society (LCMS) who told her about a recent grant that LCMS had given to the OSU Herbarium to help with the purchase of a new cabinet for the storage of dried fungi specimens. They gave $1500 in honor of the LCMS founder Freda Holloran towards the purchase of cabinet that cost $3000. Molly’s instant reaction was this sounds like a challenge! If LCMS can fund half of the cost of a herbarium cabinet then CMS could certainly find the money to complete the purchase.
The CMS Board had already held their March Board meeting the previous week. But, this sounded like an excellent use for CMS funds that are earmarked for grants and scholarships. And, the timing was perfect since Dr. Jessie Uehling, the OSU Fungi Herbarium curator, was scheduled to speak at our March meeting. So, thanks to our new found tech friend called Zoom, it only took about 15 minutes to pull together the CMS Board for an impromptu meeting to address the need. Once the need was explained, a motion to match the LCMS amount of $1500 in honor of the CMS founder Freeman Rowe was raised, seconded, and passed unanimously.
The CMS President, Chris Melotti, was very happy to announce the grant at our March 15, 2023 meeting prior to Jessie’s talk about Psilocybin mushrooms. Below is a video of Chris’s introduction of Jessie and the announcement of the grant.
More about the OSU Herbarium
Oregon State University’s Herbarium supports learning, discovery, and engagement by obtaining and curating our state’s most comprehensive collection of plants, fungi, lichens, and algae from around the world, with a geographic emphasis on Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. Their resources are used at OSU, across Oregon, nationally, and globally to create knowledge and solve problems. The OSU Herbarium houses approximately 550,000 vascular plant, bryophyte, algal, and fungal specimens. The specimens are stored in 382 herbarium cases mounted on 20 mobile carriages. The facility houses the three major herbarium collections in Oregon: Oregon State University, University of Oregon, and Willamette University. The three collections bring complementary strengths to the newly consolidated herbarium. You can learn more on the OSU Herbarium website.
Cordley hall where the OSU Herbarium is located completed a complete renovation in June of 2023 which included an updated state of the art herbarium with 20% more cabinet space. The renovation gave the fungal collection space for ~16 new cabinets which Dr. Uehling is slowly chipping away with using small grants, gifts donations etc!
For more information about Jessie Uehling and mycological research at OSU check out the Uehling Lab, jessieuehling.com or follow us on Twitter @uehlingLab.
