Kaw Valley
   Mycological Society


The KVMS was founded in 1986 as an association of those interested in mushrooms, especially in Kansas.  Our membership includes a few professionals although most of us are amateurs, and beginners are always welcome.  Every other month we publish a six page newsletter, The Kansas Mycolog, which lists scheduled activities, articles by members, and reports of forays. 
INDEX
Forays and Meetings Calendar
Membership What's Up
Information on Kansas Mushrooms Club News
Officers Miscellany
Other Mushroom Sites Photographs of Kansas Mushrooms
What's New on the Site
Specimen Labels

FORAYS AND MEETINGS
Forays are scheduled for the second Saturday of each month from April through October.  Meetings are usually held the following Wednesday so the collections from the forays can be viewed.  During the colder months there are no forays, but the same schedule (Wednesday following the second Saturday) holds for meetings.  We normally meet at the Lawrence Public Library at 7:00 p.m.  Programs may include slide programs, mushroom identification sessions, and guest speakers.

MEMBERSHIP
Membership is open to anyone who is interested in mushrooms.  Dues are $8 per year.  Those who also wish to join the North American Mycological Association (NAMA) through us should add $32 per family, making a dues package of $40.  This represents a $3 saving over joining each separately.  Checks should be made to "Kaw Valley Mycological Society" and sent to the treasurer: Rebecca Finney, 1705 E. 975 Road, Lawrence, KS 66049. E-mail: rfinney@ku.edu.

WHAT'S NEW ON THE SITE
June 9, 2008:  Calendar updated.
September 20, 2007:  What's Up updated.
December 1, 2007: Officers updated. 
December 1, 2007: Club News updated.

INFORMATION ON KANSAS MUSHROOMS
A Guide to Kansas Mushrooms by Bruce Horn, Richard Kay, and Dean Abel

A Checklist of Kansas Mushrooms compiled by Richard Kay

Wild Mushrooms Worth Knowing by Ansel Hartley Stubbs

Mushrooms in Kansas (NAMA Slide Program # 23) by Ron Meyers


OFFICERS FOR 2008
President  Bob Bruce
bobbruce@gmail.com
Vice President  Terry Shistar
tshistar@gmail.com
Secretary  Sherry Kay
skipkay@ku.edu
Treasurer Rebecca Finney rfinney@ku.edu
Newsletter Editor George Sayers mycolog@gmail.com

CALENDAR (Updated June 9, 2008)
Saturday June 14th Foray at Melvern Lake’s Outlet Park. If you would like to use Google Maps or a GPS unit for specific directions from your location, use “38.519776 Latitude - 95.700121 Longitude” as your destination.
    The River Bottom Trail at Melvern Lake is located on the northeastern extreme of Outlet Park, as indicated on the map by a star. This is near campsite #144 and Outlet Park’s northeastern most Shower/Restroom/Laundry facility, where a parking lot can be found. From Lawrence, take US-59 south to Ottawa, then take I-35 south to exit #155. Head north on US-75 then take the exit for KS-31. Turn right
on KS-31/Melvern RD, follow lake signs to Outlet Park campsites #113 - #150, proceed through the Fee Booth and continue to follow signs toward campsite #144.
Wednesday June 18th Meeting (7:00pm, Lawrence Public Library, Auditorium, 707 Vermont Street)
    At this meeting we will be discussing microscopes and their use in mushroom identification. We intend to have these instruments on hand to look at microscopic features of fungi. If you own a microscope and would like to share please bring it along, or if you have a mushroom you would like to put under a scope please bring it in!
    You are invited to join us for a Dutch-treat dinner at Free State Brewery (637 Massachusetts St) at 5:30pm before the meeting.
Saturday July 12th Foray at the Johnston’s Farm.
    This has become an annual tradition with the KVMS and consistently proves to be an excellent foray site. Bring a picnic lunch and your favorite libations, as this is as much a social event as a mushroom-hunt.
    To drive to the Johnston’s Farm, take US-59 south from Lawrence to Sandcreek RD, which is located approx. two miles north of Ottawa near a Carpet Warehouse. Go 6 miles west on Sandcreek RD. Then turn south on Idaho RD and drive about half a mile to find the farm at 3572 Idaho RD –which is the first driveway south of the bridge crossing Appanoose Creek. From Topeka take US-75 south to US-268, travel east through Pomona and find Idaho RD about four miles east of town. Drive northbound on Idaho RD about 2.5 miles to the farm.
    This year we will have Rosanne Healy as a guest mycologist joining us at the farm. A brief bio follows:
"Rosanne Healy has an MS from Iowa State and has worked closely with Dr. Lois Tiffany (a professor emeritus and a mycologist from Iowa State University) for over seven years in surveying the macro-fungi found in parks and preserves to get a handle on the diversity of this group in Iowa. From the information they and other mycologists have gathered they have developed a database that is now online through the Ada Hayden Herbarium website: http//www.ag.iastate.edu/grasses/fungi/fungisearch.html.
Rosanne has co-authored the recently published 2nd edition of Mushrooms and Other Fungi in the Midcontinental United States, a field guide to some common and not so common fungi in the Midwest."
Wednesday July 16th Meeting (7:00pm, Lawrence Public Library, Auditorium, 707 Vermont Street)
    The topic for this meeting is TBA.
    You are invited to join us for a Dutch-treat dinner at Free State Brewery (637 Massachusetts St) at 5:30pm before the meeting.


WHAT'S UP (Updated September 20, 2007)

  

Kansas reports 1000 species!

by Richard Kay

With a month of drought it didn't look as if this year we would make our goal of adding number 1000 to the species reported from Kansas. But Sherry's sharp eye for odd little guys paid off, combined with her persistence in the lab and library. Here are the most recent additions to the checklist of species reported from Kansas.

Tremella frondosa Fries (no. 994). Collected August 11 on the Adams foray, this jelly fungus appeared in large, leafy clusters that were yellow; some were darker, orangish at the base. See Arora, p. 674.

Collybia semihirtipes (no. 995). Terry Shister collected this on the Adams foray, growing on acorns and leaf litter. It looks like a Marasmius, so much so that Peck named it Marasmius semihirtipes. The specific epithet semihiripes implies that it is "half hairy," but this is a misnomer, because the stalk of our specimen was almost completely covered with matted cinnamon hairs, which fits Kauffman's description (1918, 1:67-68). He distinguishes it from M. spongiosus, which is hairy only at the base (1:65-66). Subsequently, spongiosus was moved from Marasmius to the genus Collybia, and according to Miller/Farr 1975, also synonymized with semihirtipes (p. 50). We think, however, that the hair stalks are distributed so differently that two species are still to be distinguished, though some might prefer to distinguish them as only two varieties. Collybia spongiosa has been reported once from Kansas, by Bartholomew in 1927.

Phellinus punctatus (no. 996). Sherry found this brown resupinate mass as a circular patch with rusty brown pores and context. It matched the description in Breitenbach (2:262), but Sherry was not sure until she saw a specimen at the NAMA foray in West Virginia.

Ciboria peckiana (no. 997). Collected on the Adams foray, these teeny-tiny gray cups stumped Sherry until they were identified at the NAMA foray by John Plischke III.

Panellus serotinus (no. 998). Very like oyster mushrooms, these were kidney- to fan-shaped, attached to wood without a stalk, with caps (3-7 cm) colored grayish with a tinge of violet. Collected September 7 on the Dingus foray. Reference: Phillips 1991, p. 211.

Callistosporium luteo-olivaceus (no. 999). Also found at Dingus, this looks like just another Marasmius, but the cap and gills are a shiny, solid yellow; as they dry out, they turn reddish, darker at the center. The stipe is scrufy. See Arora, p. 211.

Gerronema strombodes (no. 1000). A deep dimple, or umbilicate depression, at the cap center suggested the specific epithet strombodes, "trumpet shaped," which feature makes Gerronema a close relative to the more familiar genus Omphalina. Our single specimen was found on wood, at Dingus. The cap (2 cm) was a pale greenish gray, drying to a dark yellow; the stalk was whitish. See Phillips 1991, p. 77.


CLUB NEWS (Updated December 1, 2007)
 
By Ron Meyers 
 With a new year approaching we have a number of significant changes to the club.  As usual we elected new officers at the November meeting.  Bob Bruce will be our president for the next year, with Terry Shistar serving as vice-president.
    But the major news is that after way too many years, I have turned editorship of The Mycolog over to George Sayers, who I believe will be a very capable editor.  In addition he will bring a new and fresh look to the newsletter.
    Finally I want to recognize the continued dedication of Rebecca Finney who is still our treasurer and Sherry Kay who will fulfill dual duties as secretary and foray chairperson.  Last but certainly not least, Bob Roseberry will continue to do the great work he has done in the past in scheduling our meeting facilities.
    For the present, at least, I will maintain this website.

MISCELLANY

    Richard "Skip" Kay has produced a supplement to his very useful A Checklist of Kansas Mushrooms.  He has added 200 species to the original checklist that he compiled in 1989.  If you have this publication you will certainly want the supplement.
    To order the First Supplement you should send $1.00 to Richard Kay, 601 Mississippi, Lawrence, KS 66044.  Skip is not trying to make any profit from this supplement, and says he will just about break even by the time he puts postage on an envelope and returns it to you.  However, I would suggest that if you wish you could include a stamped, self-addressed envelope with the order.  It would at least make it easier for him to return the supplement to you.
Richard Kay
Department of History
University of Kansas
Lawrence, KS USA 66045-2130
skipkay@ukans.edu
 KEY TO LINCOFF'S AUDUBON FIELD GUIDE
    The summer 1985 issue of Mushroom the Journal contained a trial dichotomous key to Gary Lincoff's Audubon Field Guide.  I have copied the key to my computer and obtained permission from both Gary and Maggie Rogers, the editor of the magazine, to provide it to anyone who is interested and can receive it through the net.
    The file is written in Wordperfect.  If you are capable of reading Wordperfect documents the best way to send it would be as a .wpd attachment.  If not let me know and I will send it as a text document, which will lose some of the formatting.
CORRECTIONS FOR MUSHROOMS OF NORTHEASTERN NORTH AMERICA
    A correction sheet for this book updated July 24, 2000 is available.  Alan Bessette readily agreed to let me distribute it over the internet to anyone who needs it.  It is also available in either Wordperfect or as a text document.  The Wordperfect document looks better, but as it is only a correction sheet, it does not make much difference.
MYXOMYCETES OF OHIO
    Dr. Harold Keller, a native Kansan with degrees from both Kansas Wesleyan University and Kansas University, has co-authored a book on Myxomycetes.  While this is not a Kansas book, most of the species can occur in Kansas.  Check the Myxomycetes link for information on this book.

The featured mushrooms are Morchella esculenta and Pluteus cervinus.
This page is maintained by Ron Meyers.  My phone is 785-842-9331.
E-mail: pilott29@sunflower.com.
Your comments or suggestions are welcome.