NYMS is in The New York Times!
April 16, 2025
Research team needs Lentinus tigrinus and related species!
April 17, 2025
Aishwarya Veerabahu is a 3rd year PhD student in the Pringle Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studying the invasive Golden Oyster mushrooms. She is doing a population genomics study to understand whether cultivation and/or invasion have affected the evolutionary trajectory of golden oysters. This mushroom season, she is looking for specimens of golden oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus citrinopileatus) collected from natural areas all over North America, especially New York, Vermont, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Toronto, Colorado, and Texas.
Protocol
1) Find and take photo(s) of a golden oyster specimen growing “naturally” outdoors i.e. not cultivated. Feel free to post this observation on iNaturalist or MushroomObserver. If you do, please let her know the observation # of your observation (i.e. 218929426, found at the end of the url of your completed post: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/218929426)
2) Collect mushroom in a brown paper bag or wax bag, no need to collect more than 3 individual mushrooms (i.e. the whole cluster is not needed, chunkier mushrooms preferred). Refrigerate until you are able to send it.
3) Note down the location of the collection spot, to whatever degree you are comfortable with, but at least down to the county or township. Note down type of wood it is growing on if possible/identifiable. If you want to, note down the latitude and longitude of collection spot.
4) Send specimen to the address below, accompanied by an email or physical note containing your name, the location of the collected specimen, and any other information (e.g. type of wood substrate, online observation #, anything else you might have noticed).
PRINGLE LAB/ AISHWARYA VEERABAHU
3240 Microbial Sciences Building
1550 Linden Drive
Madison, WI 53706
She’ll be happy to answer questions veerabahu@wisc.edu
