Description:The talk “Fascinating spores” will focus on spores their role in the life of a mushroom and on correlations between spore characters and life style and dispersal with an emphasis on all the things that we don’t know! (please note: this talk will not be recorded) About Else Vellinga:Else Vellinga is a mycologist who is interested in naming and classifying mushroom species in California and beyond especially Parasol mushrooms. She has described 22 species as new for California. She got her training at the national herbarium in the Netherlands and her PhD at the university of Leiden. Her main goal is to contribute to the conservation of mushroom species and for that reason she has proposed several species for the IUCN global database of endangered species and lately she is active in the FunDiS conservation working group. She tries to keep current with the mushroom literature. Else is also an avid knitter and likes to use mushroom dyed yarn for her creations.