The 37th annual New Zealand Fungal Foray will take place next week (20-25 April) in the forests near Karamea, on the West Coast of the South Island.
It’s the 40th anniversary of the Forays, which began in 1986, with just a few years missing during Covid. At each Foray, mycologists (fungal experts) and enthusiasts converge on a different location each year to find and scientifically identify as many fungi as they can.
The Forays are organised by the Fungal Network of New Zealand Inc. with members drawn from the Bioeconomy Science Institute Maiangi Taiao, universities, the Department of Conservation (DoC), iwi/hapu, non-government organisations, botanical societies, and the general community. Each year, the Foray aims to provide new knowledge of the fungi in our native forests and other environments, documenting new records of fungi, new host relationships, and possibly species new to science.
Karamea is a special location, with its forests having a reputation for being rich in fungi but largely unexplored, because of the remote end-of-the-road location of the township. It was a base for some targeted collecting by an important New Zealand mycologist in the 1960s, Dr Ross McNabb, who described several species new to science. Karamea’s nearby forests are therefore the “type locations” for several endemic species, so they have a rich history of scientific importance.
This Foray is the largest ever – with over 80 people registered to attend. Several mycologists are coming from Australia and North America.
With permission from DoC, participants will be surveying approved native forests for fungi over four of the five weekdays. Selected specimens will be later deposited in the Nationally Significant Collections of the Bioeconomy Science Institute, dried fungal specimens in the New Zealand Fungarium, and living cultures in the International Collection of Microorganisms from Plants Culture Collection.
On Wednesday a Colloquium (conference day) of papers will be presented by mycologists, mushrooms growers, and tertiary students. Students from Karamea School will be invited to visit our identification ‘lab’ to view our new fungal collections, and a hosted public walk has been organised on Tuesday morning (Guided Fungi Walk | Karamea.nz)
Source: Bioeconomy Science Institute
