FFSC News & Stories

Each spring, the retreat of the snowpack provides a unique ecological window of opportunity for “snowbank fungi”, a group of mushrooms that (as the name suggests) grow in and around snowbanks. As spring gives way to summer, curious mycophiles from around the world gather at a rustic campus in Tahoe National Forest to study these fascinating fungi.

Calling all artists! Submit your entries for the 2026 Santa Cruz Fungus Fair logo design contest! The deadline is 10pm on August 18, 2026. The winning logo will be used on the official Fair T-Shirts, posters and other materials. The Grand Prize is $500 plus other perks!

Chef Bob Wynn, Forager-in-Chief Sue Labiste and the FFSC Culinary committee, led by Margaret Carpenter, cooked up a truly wild event this year featuring foraged foods.

Most of us know many species of fungi form mycorrhyzal relatonships with plants... but it hasn't always been clear what exactly they are doing and who is benefiting from this relationship.

This beautiful little mushroom isn't a mushroom at all.  It is Dendrogramma enigmaticaI, a newly named organism from the deep seas near Australia and it may be rewriting evolutionary history.  Well named...It is in fact an enigma!

For all of you, who are wishing for some information on microscopic features of fungi, Allan Rockefeller has given us a link to a comprehensive article he helped write.