MNS Mycology

iNaturalist MycoBlitz - Discover, Learn & Document Mushrooms! Join our inaugural fungi foray at: 📍Setia Alam Community Forest 📅 Sunday, Sept 29 | 8:30 am - 12:30 pm ⏳ Limited to 25 participants! Cost: RM30 (MNS Members) | RM80 (Non-members) For those who register, attend our pre-event webinar on Friday, Sept 27 | 8 pm - 9:30 pm (Google Meet link to be provided). Topics covered: Group Intro & Importance of Mycology Using iNaturalist Photography Tips for Identification What to Expect During the Foray 🍄Don’t miss this exciting day of fungi discovery with the MNSSB Mycology Group! 👉Sign up:  https://forms.gle/126WZc4eY1hoeCua8  Want to learn more about what an iNaturalist MycoBlitz is? Check out our blog post here:  https://mycology.mnsselangorbranch.org/2024/09/what-is-inaturalist-mycoblitz.html

Observe the forest floor closely, and a new world emerges. The world as we know it wouldn't exist without fungi. Fungi have been around for more than a billion years - working as the natural world's architects and alchemists.  Since the dawn of human civilization, we've harnessed their powers.  Our lives are richer as fruit is turned to wine, and yeasts raise our bread and ferment our beer or ale.  Penicillin, chocolate, soy sauce, miso, and detergent rely on fungi to be produced. Psychoactive compounds found in some fungi alter our experiences of connection, creativity, and even love.  By harnessing fungi to transform organic matter, diverse and innovative solutions to social and ecological issues are uncovered. Personal journey "Is everything alright? Are you eating all of these!?" Some friends voice concerns for my well-being after I post a series of strange and unique mushroom photos online. Others marvel and are genuinely interested. The reaction is typical -

Taxonomic Ranking  Before we can name an organism, understanding taxonomic rank is crucial. It is the relative level of a group of organisms (a taxon) in an ancestral or hereditary hierarchy. A common system of biological classification (taxonomy) consists of species, genus, family, order, class, phylum, kingdom, and domain.

Fungi come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, and Malaysia is a particularly rich country in terms of fungal diversity. From the small and minuscule to the large and bizarre, the country is home to a wide range of fascinating fungi that can be found in its forests and jungles. 1. C hlorogaster dipterocarpi Back in '99, some researchers (Thomas Læssøe and Leo Jalink) found an epic new puffball species in the Sabah forest in Malaysia. They tried reaching out to a bunch of fungal experts, but no one could help them identify it. It has very rarely been documented and is known from less than 5 sites.

If you're a visual learner and want to sharpen your mushroom ID skills, here are some helpful  key wheels  with lots of examples of different fungi. It includes more than 2,800 species distributed on more than 1,000 genera and illustrated with more than 10,000 pictures. The mushrooms shown are mostly from temperate Europe, but the morphological features used for identification apply to Malaysian species, too. It's a great way to see how mushrooms are grouped.  DOWNLOAD FUNGI WHEELS  - over 90 pages of wheels (~182.2MB). An example of one of the wheels displaying types of truffle-like fungus.

  Many articles are published with headlines like, "Deadly fungus, poison fire coral, sighted near Cairns, prompting a warning for bushwalkers," "This deadly mushroom can literally shrink your brain—and it's probably more widespread than we thought," and "Sightings of deadly 'fire mushroom' prompt warning from US military in Japan." The species creating all the hubbub is Trichoderma cornu-damae , also known as 'Poison Fire Coral' and in Japan as 火炎茸 / kaentake, or "fire mushroom." Personally, I prefer the Taiwanese common names "flame antler" and "flame meat stick fungus."  Encyclopedia Britannica lists Trichoderma cornu-damae as the world's second deadliest fungus (behind the Death Cap - Amanita phalloides ). Yikes!

  Mushrooms are tricky to identify from just a photo—there’s immense diversity and many look-a-like species. Plus, factors like growth stage, environment, and even parasitism can change how they appear. 

An iNaturalist MycoBlitz event is a group activity where people gather to find, photograph, and record different types of fungi in a specific area. The goal is to document as many species as possible in a short time, like a  "fungi treasure hunt." These events are important because they  help scientists and conservationists understand the variety of fungi in an area, track changes over time, and protect rare or endangered species.   By involving the community, MycoBlitz events raise awareness about the importance of fungi in ecosystems and contribute valuable data to global research. How can I participate? If you haven't signed up and created an account on iNaturalist.org, do that and then join our  MNS Mycology Group - Selangor Branch iNaturalist Umbrella Project. By participating in individual MycoBlitz events hosted by the MNSSB Mycology Group, your contributions will be added to the map to  help expand and improve upon Selangor's virtual mycota  - an online databa