Summer 2010 President’s Message

          It’s been an odd spring, with wide temperature and rainfall fluctuations, and the fungi seem to be as confused as we are about what’s going on:  Early and late morel species seemed to fruit at the same time, and the season was much shorter than usual.  Several individuals did well collecting morels on their own, but relatively few were found on our club’s forays.

            Nonetheless, I enjoyed those forays from a photographic standpoint. At the Safe Harbor foray I came upon the most beautiful and extensive fruiting of Dryad’s Saddles (Polyporus squamosus) that I’ve ever seen. A fallen log contained at least fifty large specimens, and a standing dead tree nearby hosted many more.  I also saw and photographed some interesting fauna. At Susquehannock State Park I was able to take a close-up of a Zebra Swallowtail butterfly, and the cool temperatures at Safe Harbor caused an Eastern American Toad that I happened upon to be sluggish, so I was able to get some good close-ups of it too.

            At Safe Harbor an interesting Clitocybe was collected (or should I say an Ampulloclitocybe or Infundibulicybe ? — for as Annie Li pointed out to me, that genus has recently been split up); and at Mt. Gretna, despite generally scanty finds, Neil Campbell spotted a polypore that I’d long wanted to see, but never had: Cryptoporus volvatus.  Its generic name means ‘hidden pores’ and describes a unique feature of that fungus: it’s the only polypore whose pores are covered by a veil, which prevents the spores from falling out and being carried away by air currents. How, then, does it reproduce?  It turns out that the veil on each fruiting body develops a small hole (usually just one), and beetles enter through that hole to feast on the spores and flesh of the fungus. When they later bore into nearby trees they leave behind some of the fungal spores, which may then germinate and produce new fruiting bodies that emerge from the tunnels left by the beetles. Quite an efficient strategy!  If you didn’t make the Mt. Gretna foray, but would like to see what C. volvatus looks like, Gary Emberger’s web site (http://www.messiah.edu/Oakes/fungi_on_wood/poroid%20fungi/species%20pages/Cryptoporus%20volvatus.htm) has some fine pictures of it.

            Looking ahead, June is usually a time when few fungi fruit, but given the climatic vagaries of the last few months, who knows what will happen this year?  The long-range forecast is for a cooler than usual first half of the summer, and a warmer than usual second half.  So we’ll hope for the best, especially when July arrives and the chanterelle harvest begins.  Be sure, too, to mark the last day of that month as the date of our annual tasting event, which will take place this year at the Embergers’ home. (See schedule for directions.)

            Finally, please note the registration form in this issue for this year’s Helen Miknis Memorial Foray.  It will be held earlier than usual this year (Sept. 10-12), so don’t wait too long to make your reservation. We have once again engaged Leon Shernoff to be our principal identifier, and those who have attended previous forays at Kings Gap will attest to the excellent food, lodging and camaraderie to be had there. Don’t miss out!

             John Dawson

            John at Dinosaur Rock, Mt. Gretna