All About Hydnum Evening

Rachel Swenie is a PhD candidate in the Matheny lab in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Her dissertation research focuses on taxonomic and genetic diversity in the order Cantharellales, including genera such as Hydnum (hedgehog mushrooms), Cantharellus (chanterelles), Craterellus, and Botryobasidium. Rachel is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and a passionate field mycologist who has worked extensively in the southern Appalachian mountains and in Patagonia. She also enjoys interfacing with citizen science mushroom clubs and giving presentations and workshops about fungi to a variety of audiences.

Check out Rachel's recent publication, “Six new species and reports of Hydnum (Cantharellales) from eastern North America”, by Rachel A. Swenie, Timothy J. Baroni, and P. Brandon Matheny. Available on Mycokeys: https://mycokeys.pensoft.net/article/27369/

Verlé will discuss the goals of our Hydnum challenge using iNaturalist.

Call for Folks with Scopes:

In addition to uploading Hydnum photos and descriptions to the Foray NL Hydnum Project on iNaturalist, a number of folks with microscopes are augmenting their Hydnum iNaturalist observations by recording specimen spore size, and the number of sterigmata on basidia. If you’re interested in joining our ad hoc Hydnum SWAT team, please contact vharrop@gmail.com