Fungus forays.

Byline: MIKE STAHLBERG The Register-Guard

ONE OF the West's largest mushroom shows doesn't just pop up overnight like a succulent golden chanterelle emerging from a "mushrump," that rounded hump of ground that some fungi create as they grow below the surface.

No, the annual Mount Pisgah Arboretum Mushroom Festival & Plant Sale requires the efforts of more than 100 individual volunteers who forage field and forest in search of mushrooms of every size, shape and color. In addition, about 40 students in two Lane Community College "mushroom biology" classes are pressed into service on day-long field trips held the weekend prior to the show.

It all comes together in a brief but intense festival of fungi on the last Sunday of October. But, like an "inky cap" shaggy mane mushroom on a hot day, the festival is short-lived. It lasts only six hours.

The 21st annual festival will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is by donation, with a suggested rate of $3 per person or $6 per family. (The money goes to support Mount Pisgah Arboretum.)

Because on-site parking is limited, festival-goers are urged to use the free shuttle bus service (park in the JCI company lot near the corner of East Franklin Boulevard and Seavey Loop Road).

About 3,000 people attended last year's festival, and organizers expect even more this year.

While the mushroom displays - including microscopic views displayed on television monitors - are the show's centerpiece, the festival has plenty of other attractions as well.

Among them: food (try the mushroom soup or the Portobella mushroom "burgers"); wine tasting; live music; guided arboretum tours; fresh-pressed apple cider; educational displays; a truffle display; hay rides; commercial vendors selling edible mushrooms; a scarecrow contest; and a plant sale featuring native plants and others suitable for fall planting.

In addition, expert mycologists will be available to identify mushroom specimens brought in by members of the public.

Dry conditions have made this a difficult year so far for people foraging for edible mushrooms. But that shouldn't cause the festival to miss a beat, say members of the sponsoring Cascade Mycological Society.

Similar weather conditions last year produced 328 different species in the display - a show record, according to Bruce Newhouse, a botanist who's president of the Mycological Society.

A campout/mushrooming expedition scheduled for last weekend was canceled because not enough members thought it would be productive enough, Newhouse said. But "the mushrooms are starting to show," he said, so the gatherers who will scatter from the coast to the high Cascades this week should do well.

"Lots of singles, pairs and small groups will be out all this week, particularly Thursday, Friday and Saturday," Newhouse said.

Marcia Peeters, one of the founding members of Cascade Mycological Society and a veteran of all 20 previous mushroom shows, agrees the prognosis for this year's event is good.

"There won't necessarily be the same kind of showy, large displays of some of the more stunning mushrooms," she said. "But in years like this, we see all these different odd things, unusual mushrooms that we don't normally see. That makes it fun."

Peeters knows first-hand about the diversity of mushrooms available this year because she also teaches the LCC mushroom biology classes. There's a strong link between the college and the mushroom show. Freeman Rowe taught the LCC mushroom class when he founded the festival.

"The show originated out of the LCC classes, and the mycological society originated out of 20 years of us all hanging out together and deciding we should probably do something formal for the rest of the public as well," Peeters said.

The LCC classes use their weekend field trips to get a head start on the mushroom gathering for the show. More than 90 different species were collected by the 20 students who participated in Sunday's field trip.

Two-thirds of those specimens, however, came from one of Peeters' favorite mushrooming areas - one she normally doesn't reveal to others.

She took the students there - after getting them to "sign in blood" that they would not reveal the location, or go back to it themselves - only because previous outings at other areas had not been very productive.

"It's a great spot because it's wet much of the season when everything else is dry," she told the students before loading them aboard two vans.

And it was obvious as soon as the vans parked along on a forest road that it was a good spot.

Several types of mushrooms were growing in the dirt along the shoulder of the road.

And a student who dove through the underbrush to take care of some urgent personal business returned moments later holding a salad plate-sized Boletus mirabilis. Commonly known as the admirable Bolete, it's the largest edible mushroom found in this area. It has a "delicious, nutty-lemony flavor," Peeters said.

After making spore print paper and hand lenses available to the students to assist in their identification process, Peeters sent them off, with orders to return in 90 minutes.

"Bring back what you find," she said, "and if you find beautiful specimens, bring them back in GOOD SHAPE FOR THE SHOW!"

The resulting scramble was like an Easter egg hunt, complete with wicker baskets in which to place the gathered goodies. The woods soon echoed with giggles, squeals, whoops, "Oh, look at this!" and other excited exclamations of discovery.

And Peeters was one of the most enthusiastic mushroom hunters.

"That is great! That is beautiful! It's so pretty! I love it, I love it, I love it," she said when Mycological Society board member Rebecca Meyer handed her a golden chanterelle mushroom with a curly-cued stem.

The chanterelle, of course, is edible, as are many other mushrooms. Peeters says about 25 of the 200 to 300 mushrooms on display at a typical Mount Pisgah Arboretum Mushroom Show are good enough that people "would want to eat them."

But some mushrooms are deadly poisonous. That's why people are urged to learn how to identify mushrooms properly - rather than just comparing one with a photograph - before eating them.

Students in Peeters' class learn to look at the mushroom's shape, color, structure, spores, texture - and even its smell - to help them distinguish between different mushrooms of similar appearance.

Visitors to the festival can get a good look at both edible and inedible mushrooms - as well as a guide to safe mushroom eating.

"We have an edibles table, a poisons table and a look-a-likes table," she said. "And we have 'Edibility Rules' to give out to folks."

FUNGI FESTIVAL FACTS

WHAT: 21st annual Mount Pisgah Arboretum Mushroom Festival & Plant Sale. In addition to one of the largest mushroom displays on the West Coast, the event includes a sale of native plants, a scarecrow contest, guided tours of the arboretum, hayrides, live music, food booths, wine tasting and various vendors and crafts.

WHEN: Show hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

WHERE: Mount Pisgah Arboretum, located off of Seavey Loop Road in the Buford Park Recreation Area.

GETTING THERE: Take Exit 189 off of Interstate 5, or 30th Avenue from southeast Eugene and follow the signs. Festival-goers are encouraged to park their cars at the JCI parking lot at East Franklin and Seavey Loop roads and take advantage of the free shuttle service.

COST: Suggested donation for entry is $3 per person or $6 per family.

- The Register-Guard

CAPTION(S):

Some of the species foraged recently included the Boletus mirabilis (above) and Coprinus (right). Mushroom show participant and LCC instructor Marcia Peeters displays two edible mushroom species: Cantharellus formosus (left) and Ramaria araiospora (below left), which should be foraged with caution due to its similar appearance to some inedible species. MIKE STAHLBERG / The Register-Guard