Welcome to Macrofungi of Lane County, Oregon (MLCO)
Our Mission:
- Inventory, catalog, and describe the macrofungi of Lane County, Oregon as completely and accurately as possible. This will include voucher specimens, photographs, and DNA barcoding as an essential element for each taxon, prioritizing those species that require taxonomic resolution or more information.
- Articulate fully with the Fungal Diversity Survey (FunDiS), formerly the North American Mycoflora Project, whose mission is to “identify and map the distribution of macrofungi throughout North America”.
- Wherever appropriate, provide opportunities for active participation and project experience for LCC and UO students, and members of CMS.
Citizen Scientist at Work
Watch this introductory video produced by the Illinois Mycological Association to learn more about the North American Mycoflora Project.
“Citizen Science happens when everyone becomes involved, mushroom hunters, volunteers, photographers, students, and scientists. Local mycoflora projects are growing across North America. Together we can build up knowledge on the diversity and distribution of our fungi.”
About Us:
The MLCO was conceived by Susie Holmes, Bruce Newhouse, Bitty Roy, and Roo Vandergrift in January of 2018. All are members of the Cascade Mycological Society and have extensively contributed both their time and talents to the mushroom display at the annual MPA Mushroom Festival. After some initial meetings and collaboration with others who have initiated local mycoflora projects, they brought their concept forward to the CMS Board of Directors. The CMS Board unanimously voted to sponsor MLCO with Susie, Bruce, Bitty, and Roo, serving as the steering committee, plus the current CMS President Cheshire Mayrsohn . The steering committee then went forward with registering MLCO as an official project of FunDiS and is currently created projects on both INaturalist and Mushroom Observer, which serve as the primary data repositories for FunDiS.
MLCO Short Term Plans:
We would like to start small in order to work out many needed processes. After working out the details, we look forward to offering workshop opportunities to train CMS members as citizen scientists in proper fungi collection and vouchering techniques. We also anticipate Mycoblitz forays in which the sole mission is to voucher specimens. Long-term plans also include how to incorporate the annual Mount Pisgah Arboretum (MPA) Mushroom Festival. The goal will be to educate festival-goers about MLCO and its mission and to incorporate at least a portion of the fungi collected for the festival into the MLCO macrofungi inventory.
The Woodchip Fungi of Lane County
In an effort to expand the list of documented fungi in Lane County as part of the MLCO project; the Woodchip Fungi of Lane County project was created in December of 2019. This project will capture the fungi that are present in wood chip habitats. Primarily geared towards urban landscapes in the Eugene-Springfield area; it will encompass fungi present in any woodchip (i.e. wood chip or mulch covered landscape areas) habitat within Lane County.
You may join the Woodchip Fungi of Lane County on Inaturalist here. To assist you the MLCO team has created a list to date of known and potential woodchip fungi in Lane County: Excel formatted list for download, PDF List for viewing. The list is based on the literature (references are given) and iNaturalist observations from Lane County.
It would be very helpful if CMS Members and all interested Citizen Scientists would either join the Woodchip Fungi of Lane County project and add observations that are found on wood chips. Or, when adding an observation in Lane County, note that a fungus is on wood chips in the Description box.
How you can Help
- Sign-up for the CMS newsletter to hear about MLCO events.
- Learn more about INaturalist (web and mobile app for all things natural: plants, fish, mammals, mushrooms, etc).
- Take photos of the mushrooms you find in Lane County. Follow the instructions on this page to upload your photos and add them to the MLCO project.
All of the activities associated with MLCO are performed by volunteers. Volunteers are free, and we appreciate them very much. But, DNA testing of mushroom species is not free. If you would like to contribute, you can:
Make a Purchase of a handcrafted item that benefits MLCO – Mushroom Wine Charms or Mushroom Magnets.
Donate: Cold hard cash always works, you can do that here.
Recent Observations on INaturalist from the MLCO Project