Meet the mushroom hunters behind North Texas’ new mycology club

Members of the North Texas Mycological Association specialize in differentiating delicious mushrooms from dangerous ones.

By Miguel PerezNovember 16, 2021 9:53 am, , ,

From KERA:

 Days are slowing down in North Texas. The air is cooling and leaves are turning yellow, but there’s a flurry of life bustling underneath our feet. Oysters, boletes, morels and mushrooms of all kinds are bursting through the soil. It’s an excellent time to go foraging.

But mushroom hunting can be a dangerous sport. There’s a mind-numbing variety of species, both benign and dangerous, out there. Many of the most delicious mushrooms have toxic look-alikes. It takes a lot of know-how and patience to confidently collect and eat wild fungi.

Luckily, novice foragers in the region can now turn to a new club: the North Texas Mycological Association. 

A group of avid mycophiles, led by president Sebastian Tabibi, have been working to become an official chapter of The North American Mycological Association, a transnational network of professional and amateur mycologists from the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The North Texas group will join well-established chapters in the state like the Central Texas Mycological Society and the Gulf States Mycological Society.

Tabibi said he hopes to have the club officially up and running by January 2022, but they’re already planning guided forays where both novice and experienced foragers get together to search for mushrooms.

Read more. 

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