SEQUIM — If you are curious about the fungi among us, the Olympic Peninsula Mycological Society Wild Mushroom Show on is the place to be on Sunday.
The four-hour-long event starts at noon at the Sequim Elks Lodge, 143 Port Williams Road.
The mushroom festival is free and open to the public.
Attendees at Sunday’s show can view displays of wild mushrooms that grow on the North Olympic Peninsula, learn the similarities between edible and poisonous mushrooms, learn about propagation projects and preserving displays, and purchase mushroom books.
Experienced identifiers will be on hand to tell you about your finds (wild mushroom should always be properly identified before being consumed).
Fungus paradise
The Peninsula is a fungi paradise, with more than 5,000 species growing in its lowlands and highland forests.
The show will have many mushrooms that will be picked today and Saturday beforehand, and attendees are encouraged to bring samples of fungi they find to be identified.
While mushroom pickers are often reluctant to share their foraging spots, especially for chanterelles, a local delicacy, they will share environmental indicators that will help locate them. (They usually grow near second-growth stands of Douglas firs where sphagnum moss is thick.)
With members in Jefferson County and mushroom shows in Chimacum at the Tri-Area Community Center in the past, the mycological society emphasizes learning what the tasty mushrooms look like compared with their poisonous look-alikes.
Mushroom-growing kits will be for sale at the festival for $20.
The society, founded in 1977 at the Jefferson County Mycological Society, is a nonprofit volunteer organization dedicated to learning about and enjoying mushrooms and their environment.
Today, members live from Joyce to Brinnon, and most live in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley.
The Olympic Peninsula Mycological Society is open to anyone and schedules six meetings a year to promote the safe enjoyment of wild mushrooms.
A guest speaker is usually scheduled at the meetings, and at least two outings a year are scheduled to hunt for shrooms — the Cascade Mountains in the spring for black morels, snow mushrooms, pink-tipped coral and boletus, and then in the fall in the Eastern Olympic Mountains for golden chanterelles, russulas, boletus, hedgehogs and matsutakes.
Annual society dues are $15 per family or $10 per individual.
Visit out the society’s website at www.olymushrooms.org or phone Lowell Dietz at 360-477-4228.
