The Beauty of Mushrooms: A Walk and Talk

Description

The walk will take place in a woodland environment in which a variety of mushrooms may be found. This will give an opportunity to explore reporting, classification and identification issues. We will look at how to take spore prints as an aid to identification and discuss harvesting for identification, food and medicinal use. 
 
The talk will provide a theoretical basis for dealing with mushrooms. It will be introductory, broad in nature and will range across the following topics: 
 
• What is a mushroom? 
• Classification of mushrooms 
• Seasonality, habitat and weather 
• Below the surface: the wood-wide web 
• Above the surface: fruiting bodies 
• Structure of fruiting bodies 
• Identification framework 
• Mushroom identification books 
• Sharpening razors, lighting fires and healing the sick: applications for mushrooms 
• Medicinal mushroom sources 
• Spirituality 
 
Among the learning outcomes to be expected are: 
 
✓ How to describe mushrooms 
✓ How mushrooms are classified 
✓ A framework for identification 
✓ What to photograph for later identification 
✓ How to make spore prints 
✓ How to plan a mushroom outing 
✓ Using medicinal mushrooms 

John Vaughan is a herbalist who practises on a pay-it-forward basis, mainly in the Cork area. He wildcrafts most of the raw material for his herbal tincture-based activities and leads occasional medicinal plant walks in Cork, Dublin and Copenhagen. 
John studied electrical engineering at University College Cork (UCC) and holds BE, MEngSc and PhD degrees from the National University of Ireland (NUI), for which he subsequently lectured  in UCC for 36 years on Computer Science. 
About 30 years ago, John became interested in the identification and application of flowering plants and their medicinal applications. He graduated as a herbalist from the Irish College of Phytomedicine in 2012 and subsequently became a member of the Irish Register of Herbalists. 
John attributes his approach to healing to the influence of a healer, mentor and friend, Karel van Orsouw, who was based in Dieden (Ravenstein) in the Netherlands. 
John is a member of the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI).