Christian Schwarz Special Event

In person only, this special presentation will replace our normal Oct 16th meeting at the Amazon Community Center

• Speaker: Christian Schwarz – Mushroom Bioregions of the United States
• When: October 25, 2024 at 7pm (Friday), doors open at 6:30.
• Where: Unitarian Universalist Church – Click for directions (no live stream)
• Cost: Free event open to the public. CMS will accept cash donations near the entrance.

Biogeography is one of the most fascinating topics in all of natural history. The basic question is simple: Where do organisms live? But every subsequent question adds a new layer of complexity: Do they live there all the time? Why do they live there? Are there patterns that emerge when we look at groups of organisms? Are there strange discrepancies that don’t fit the pattern? How small of an area can we map, and how finely? In this talk, we’ll explore broad bioregions of the United States from the perspective of mushrooms (which sometimes align with bioregions of plants and animals… but not always!). From the chilly and damp temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest to the subtropical hardwood hammocks of Florida; from the arid interior deserts to the alpine crest of the Rocky Mountains, we’ll take a tour of some of the country’s distinct macrofungal communities and ask ourselves questions about time, space, and evolution.

About the Speaker

Christian’s latest book, Mushrooms of Cascadia, will be available to purchase. Cash or Venmo, $60.

Christian Schwarz is an itinerant naturalist from California. Although he has primarily worked as a field mycologist and mycology educator, he is passionate about biodiversity in general, and ecology, evolution, and especially biogeography. He has co-authored two field guides — Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast and Mushrooms of Cascadia, both with Noah Siegel. He primarily spends his time seeking, photographing, collecting, teaching about, and publishing research on North American macrofungi. He works with the California Fungal Diversity Survey (CA FUNDIS), and has served on the IUCN Red List Working Group for North American Fungi. He is a research associate of the Ken Norris Center for Natural History at UC Santa Cruz, where he teaches undergraduate courses in mycology and community science