“You slow down and look at all of the little things.”
If you were traumatize byThe Last of Usor justa little too adventurousin college , you might fear the fungus among us . “ People require to know , ‘ Is this mushroom-shaped cloud dangerous ? Will it defeat me ? ’ ” says Chicago mushroom cloud fancier Dylan Taylor . While there are a few poisonous mushrooms that develop in Illinois , most local mushrooms are harmless — and they play an essential persona in our ecosystem . That ’s what inspire theNorthern Mycology Club , a group committed to mushroom didactics .
Dylan founded the golf-club in 2021 at Northern Michigan University , where he co - hosted mushroom-shaped cloud - trace excursions with partner Mead Taylor . The yoke get married and go to Chicago last year , bringing the northerly Mycology Club with them . Now the nature nerds of Chicagoland can love the club ’s gratuitous , kinfolk - favorable excursion .
The northerly Mycology Club hosts meetups at local nature conserves , park , and other out-of-door country where you ’ll likely find fungi burgeon forth from the ground or grow on trees . you’re able to expect a slow meander on pavement , grass , and dirt way of life while Dylan and Mead sky-high name local plants , insect , and , of course , fungi — and there ’s no mushroom left behind .
A Northern Mycology Club outing.|Courtesy of Dylan Taylor
“ We cease for every single mushroom cloud we see , even if it ’s not eatable , even if you may barely see it , ” Mead allege . At a late meetup in Forest Glen Woods , the group spotted turkey tail mushrooms , a pheasant ’s back mushroom , and a mushroom called “ Gallus gallus of the wood , ” thanks to its gist - corresponding texture and flavor .
While some local mushroom are delicious and dependable to eat , you wo n’t be chowing down on fungus at most Northern Mycology Club meetups — many of their excursions take spot at nature conserve , where forage is off - terminal point .
“ We rivet less on what you’re able to eat and more on how mushrooms are good to their environment , ” Mead explain . “ We talk about how mushroom contribute to essential mental process . ” One of those processes isdecomposition . Along with bacteria , fungi die down constitutive thing like dead Sir Henry Joseph Wood , releasing carbon , atomic number 8 , N , and Lucifer into the soil , which render vital nutrients to plant life .
Northern Mycology Club|Courtesy of Dylan Taylor
“ [ Fungi open ] our eyes to a globe that ’s exist for one thousand thousand of yr and will continue to do so , irrespective of human substructure , death , or the anthropocentric nonesuch that still permeate our culture , ” Dylan enounce . “ People get way more booked with nature when they start noticing mushroom . ”
Teal Bradley , a returning participant at the society ’s Forest Glen Woods meetup , match . “ What I get it on about these meetups is that you slow down and look at all of the small things — the hemipterous insect , the flora , the mushrooms — and you feel like you ’re search , ” Bradley says . “ I did n’t know much about mushrooms at first , and I ’m acquire a lot — not just about mushrooms , but about shuttle , plants , animals , and how everything lives together . ”
Bradley fuck at first hand that if you attend to a Northern Mycology Club meetup , you just might make a discovery . Dylan and Mead document their finding oniNaturalist , a social net where anyone can share pic of plant , animal , fungi , and more — and they encourage their meetup meeter to get in on the activity . At his first meetup , Bradley spotted a lilliputian , cup - same fungus from the genus Merismodes and became the 2nd mortal in Illinois to observe anddocument the funguson iNaturalist . The first percipient ? Dylan , of course .
guide here for info onthe next Northern Mycology Club meetup , and to watch more about the Northern Mycology Club , visittheir websiteorInstagram .
