Central Pennsylvania Wild Mushroom Club

 Check out the facebook site for the club, I post there and it's a good way to get the word out about the club! I wish I could figure out how to link it to my page!

 I've been out with the Juniata Valley Audubon Society JVAS( Thanks to Brenda Palmer)on two hikes over the past few weeks and I think they are a great group of people in tune with what we like to do. Some of you might like to go on a hike with that group. Billl did a presentation for them a few years back, they meet at the library in Bellwood once a month and do a lot of walks and very active environmentally. 

 Bill was written up in the Pennsyvania Game News by a member( Marcia Bonta) ( hope I got her name right) in 2009 or 2010. 

 An interesting find on the last walk (Post Thanksgiving Hike) was the cracked cap polypore Phellinus robiniae or formerly ramosus( I can't keep up with these names!) which grows almost primarily on black locust. This heart rot  fungus finds it's way into the tree by way of a black and yellow beetle ( Megacyllene robiniae) which also happens to like this particular tree.  Upon further searches I also read that the black locust tends to die off when it's not the primary tree in competion for sunlight. The flowers are edible and are refered to as tree candy. I can find no references for the use of Phellinus other than as a use for tinder. That would be something good to know if you were in the woods and trying to start a fire I guess, there are other hard shelf bracket fungi that would work just as well, in my humble opinion. Please feel free to do your own research and correct me if I'm wrong.

 I'll let the "cat out of the bag" here on my last comment,  you'll be hearing more about this in the future. Bill is involved in creating a fungal "garden" in association with some departments at PSU. The committee seemed excited that the club might be involved but it's only in the planning stages at this point. Wouldn't that be a great accredation for us?

Enjoy your holiday. See you all next month!

Karen