Posted 7:36 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2011
UWL’s mushroom expert leads students on a foray, shares fun facts
Mushrooms. Some are fabulous fried in hot, garlic butter. Others have medicinal value. They grow in the desert, in the snow and on the rainforest floor. What amazes UWL Biology Professor Tom Volk most about mushrooms is their great variability.
Volk takes his UWL mycology class on mushroom forays to get a taste of the diverse kinds that grow in La Crosse’s Hixon Forest near campus. Students must find 20 mushroom species and identify them by the end of fall semester.
While it may seem like a lot of fungi to find, consider there are about 15,000 species of mushrooms in the world. And there is no shortage on the Hixon Forest trail. During a Monday class period in the woods, students stumble on a new species every few feet. Some peep up from the forest floor. Others grow on old, dead logs.
“This would be a nice boutonniere,” jokes Volk holding up a colorful, flower-shaped mushroom called false turkey tail.
Facts about mushrooms
Mushrooms are identifiable not only by their shape and color, but also by their smell.
You can only imagine, notes Volk, why the mushroom dog stinkhorn has such a name.
“There is no imagination,” explains UWL student Matt Rittenhouse, a junior biology major. “I picked one last week and they smell awful.”
Mushrooms range in size from microscopic to a meter or more in diameter, says Volk. One in his lab, plucked from Hixon Forest, is about two feet wide. Students must use two hands to hold the large clumps of honey mushroom, an edible species. It is particularly good in soup, notes Volk.
A small nest-shaped mushroom is so tiny, it’s the perfect size for a raindrop to splash inside and spread its spores. With so much to explore about mushrooms, Volk has created a website dedicated to fungi facts, including a “Fungus of the Month.”
It’s obvious Volk’s fascination with mushrooms extends far beyond his classroom. He developed an interest in mushrooms as an undergraduate student in a mycology class.
“I found out you could get free food as long as you were careful,” he jokes.
Volk is entering his 16th year at UWL. He teaches mycology; plant-microbe interactions; Latin and Greek for scientists; organismal biology; and medical mycology.
See more photos from Volk's class in the woods.
Mushroom Q & A with UW-L Professor Tom Volk
Q: When do most edible mushrooms grow in this area?
A: The most biomass of edible mushrooms probably comes in the middle fall season with abundant honey mushrooms, oyster mushrooms and hen of the woods. Although there are quite a few in spring (morels) summer (chanterelles) and early fall (chicken of the woods.)
Q: How do you determine what mushrooms are OK to eat?
A: You have to be able to identify the mushroom absolutely to species to be certain it is edible. It is a myth that you can cook a mushroom with onion and a silver coin to determine if it is edible. Some people say if the coin turns black it’s edible or if it doesn’t turn black it’s edible. Either way it isn’t true.
Q: In your opinion, what is the No. 1 misconception about mushrooms?
A: People think everything is poisonous and they are afraid of them. Volk notes on his website, “of the 70,000 species of fungi, about 250 species are considered good delicious edibles. Another 250 species can kill you — or at least make you wish you were dead. Everything else is somewhere in between.”
Q: What is your favorite kind of mushroom?
A: To research or to eat? I completed my doctorate degree working on morels and that was fun. They are mysterious because no one can cultivate them. They are the one thing out in the spring, so a lot of people know what they are. The best to eat, in my opinion, are Chanterelles or Hen of the Woods. I sautee them in olive oil and butter.
Q: What is a good time of the year to find mushrooms?
A: Mushrooms grow year round. By the third week in October, most of the fleshy mushrooms are gone. However, shelf fungi will continue to grow throughout the winter.