And not just in the National Capital Region, but across North America. From September 15 to October 15, Robert Courteau hopes people will upload at least 50,000 observations of mushrooms, lichens and slime molds in what he calls the Great North American FungiQuest. Courteau uses a mirror to look at the underside of a mushroom to identify it without tearing it from the ground. (Hallie Cotnam/CBC) Courteau is a former chef, president of the Mycological Society of Ottawa and founder of Think Fungi, a non-profit organization dedicated to fungal research, education and conservation. People can upload their mushroom sightings through several apps, including iNaturalist and Mushroom Observer, Courteau told CBC Radio Ottawa Morning on a mushroom hunt off March Road near Huntmar Drive on Wednesday. Ottawa Morning7:36 Quick How many types of mushrooms can you spot in a month? Reporter Hallie Cotnam heads into the woods with a local mushroom hunter to spot mushrooms as part of the first North American mushroom hunt. As long as the locations are included, the observations will help complete a map of North America that shows which mushrooms are growing where at any point in the month. “The world of fungi is still quite unknown and understudied. The observations recorded help us understand which fungi are found across our continent, which is the first step in understanding our fungal landscape,” the event says on its website Think Fungi. Courteau hopes to have at least 50,000 mushroom sightings by October 15. (Hallie Cotnam/CBC) Do you plan to contribute? In addition to a field guide or two, Courteau suggests bringing a small mirror. “I always carry this little pocket mirror with me and it allows me to see the underside of the mushroom, which is probably one of the main characteristics of a mushroom,” Courteau said. He only picks a mushroom if he plans to eat it that night. During the walk with Ottawa Morning, he found three king boletes — one of which had the “most pristine stem” he’d ever seen — as well as what looked like a delicious porcupine mushroom. But after inspecting the underside with his pocket mirror, he found that it was missing the telltale “teeth” on its underside. Courteau Wednesday Mushroom Picking with Ottawa Morning. (Hallie Cotnam/CBC) Courteau took up the hobby of mushroom hunting when he moved to Eastern Europe and highly recommends it. Walk into a patch of forest and you might see a chicken of the woods or a pile of apricot jelly.
