Meetings are held at St. Andrew's Methodist Church, 2001 Calle Frontera, San Clemente, CA on the first Wednesday of the month—September through June at 1 o’clock PM. You can join the club by clicking here or by showing up at any monthly garden club meeting. Join now and your membership materials and name tag will be ready for you on the check-in table at the next meeting.

Fungi

Explore the fascinating world of the kingdom of fungi with our January guest speaker, anateur mycologist Joanne Schwartz. She will describe methods for locating and identifying wild mushrooms in Southern California and beyond, as well as understanding their place in nature—oaks, pines, orchids and more are dependent on fungal associations.

We will hear tales of fungal folklore and consider eating and growing them. Joanne will bring her collection of mushroom hunting gear and ID resources, and mushrooms too, if they are fruiting locally.

Her recent collecting has focused in the Redwoods and southern Sierra, as well as Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and throughout Orange County. Her presentation will feature recent finds from these locations and others.

Joanne is an avid amateur mycologist, having studied fungi since the 1960’s. She has collected and photographed fungi throughout the new and old world and has participated in field studies in Japan, Peru and Bolivia as well as the Redwoods of coastal California. Always searching for fungi to study, photograph and identify, Joanne is often found looking down while hiking. She is also an eager mycologist (fungi eater) and prepares wild fungi for tasting and for the dinner table whenever possible.