Come ring in the New Year with your mushroom fam! Our January meeting will highlight the mystical world of lichens just in time for you to see them in a tree near you! Mark your calendar! 

The meeting will be held via Zoom (link below). MAWDC President Tom McCoy will kick things off with updates on club activities and fungi in the news.  Foray's Chair Mitch Fournet will lead the virtual ID table, highlighting recent fungal finds posted to the MAWDC iNaturalist Project.

Our presentation will highlight the work of Manuela Dal Forno, PhD. Dr. Dal Forno is a Research Botanist at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas who specializes in Lichens. 

Presentation title: Botanical Time Travel: Insights from Lichen Collections

The global biodiversity crisis, stemming from climate change and the rapid loss of habitats, stands as one of our most pressing and immediate threats. Ecosystems at risk contain thousands of species, many of which have yet to be discovered or fully characterized. Lichens, while ubiquitous, are among the traditionally understudied groups for which basic biodiversity knowledge is lacking. These complex symbiotic units are formed by a main fungal partner(mycobiont), a green algal and/or a cyanobacterial partner (photobiont), along with a diverse community of microorganisms. Lichens form an important and diverse biological assemblage that is present in most terrestrial ecosystems and represent a main nutritional strategy within fungi. It is thus urgent to gain a broader understanding of how diverse lichens are and where most of their diversity might still be discovered. Fortunately, lichen specimens collected worldwide for centuries have been amassed by the millions in herbaria and are available for assessing species boundaries, geographical distributions, and phenotypic variation. Together with new exploration efforts, these extensive collections not only serve as essential resources for traditional taxonomic studies, but also hold immense potential for genetic research and as a roadmap to where future efforts should be concentrated.

Zoom Link: 

https://zoom.us/j/96693690911?pwd=YWdyeXh1bHF1N1UyNjNieFovNWFUZz09

Meeting ID 966 9369 0911

Passcode  330827

One Tap Mobile +13017158592,,96693690911#,,,,*330827# US (Washington DC)

Find your local Zoom access number: https://us06web.zoom.us/u/kQ9hr47WO