You know the old saying, March showers bring April ascomycetes? Neither do we...but we can't wait to see those cute cup fungi!

Join us at our April meeting for a Gyromitra edibility update followed by an ethnomycological trip around the world!

 The meeting will be held via Zoom (link below). 

MAW President Elizabeth Hargrave will kick things off with updates on club activities and fungi in the news.  Annie Weissman will lead the virtual ID table, highlighting recent observations from MAW's iNaturalist project.

Next up, Alden Dirks, a mycologist at the University of Michigan, will tell us about his research investigating the evolution of the gyromitrin mycotoxin and it's distribution in the false morels. If there's time, we'll ask him about his lifelong goal to eat 1001 fungal species!

Our headliner for the night is the marvelous Maria Pinto!  Her talk is titled: “Dispatches From the African Diaspor(e)a.” In this online ethnomycological expedition from West Africa to the Caribbean to the United States, we'll discuss traditional uses of and attitudes towards mushrooms, from myths to recipes to fungal fruiting bodies as sustainable food sources in these regions. 

Maria is a Boston-area writer, mycophile, and educator. She teaches for the literary nonprofit GrubStreet and has been awarded fellowships by the Vermont Studio Center, The Writers' Room of Boston, The Mastheads, and Garret on the Green. She has given talks about mushrooms for the New York Mycological Society, the Central Texas Mycological Society, and the Wisconsin Mycological Society, among others. She’s currently at work on a book of nonfiction inspired by mushrooms for The University of North Carolina Press.

Zoom Link: 

https://zoom.us/j/96693690911?pwd=YWdyeXh1bHF1N1UyNjNieFovNWFUZz09

Meeting ID 966 9369 0911

Passcode  330827

One Tap Mobile +13017158592,,96693690911#,,,,*330827# US (Washington DC)

Find your local Zoom access number: https://us06web.zoom.us/u/kQ9hr47WO