Mycology May continued with an intereactive discovery night at Club Cowra. Author, ecologist and environmental photographer Alison Pouliot guided us through her table full of woodland treasures, answering our questions while spreading her spores of knowledge about the wood-wide-web.

Fungi truly are fascinating and it fills us with delight to see our community get whisked away by their magic.

Questions abound including this one:

“What’s the difference between mushrooms and toad stools”

The answer lies in the folk tales of our youth. Back when food was mostly foraged, inedible fungi were called ‘toad stools’ and were imbued with stories of sickness, shame and black magic. Mushroom was the name given to edible fungi!

Many people are still a little scared of the fungi world as a consequence of the ancient cultural wisdom that kept our (northern hemisphere) ancestors safe. How interesting!