Victoria fungi lovers will press ahead with a mushroom show on Sunday, even in the wake of the death of a three-year-old boy who ate a poisonous mushroom.
Ben Hircock, a director with the South Vancouver Island Mycological Society, said the recent poisoning death of a Victoria child underscores the need to be responsible and educated when picking wild mushrooms.
“There will definitely be something said about that,” Hircock said.
He was speaking about the death of a Victoria child who died Oct. 11 in hospital in Edmonton where he had been taken by air ambulance. It was only a few days after he had eaten a death cap mushroom, Amanita phalloides.
Hircock said identifying the death cap is a relatively simple matter of knowing what you are looking at. So on Sunday, experts will be at pains to discuss the warning marks.
But they will also talk about the other elements of mushrooms and fungus that fascinate lovers of mycology, the science of fungus.
For example, one person will discuss the relationship between tree roots and fungi. Another will talk about the mushrooms used as traditional medicine in China.
People will also get a look at a giant display of hundreds of different mushrooms and fungi, labelled and described. They are also invited to bring in specimens they might have collected to be identified by experts who can also describe their life cycles.
Hircock said it’s important to realize not all fungus or mushroom hobby hunters are looking for something to pick and eat.
For many, especially the ones on southern Vancouver Island, they are just as likely to seek out different varieties, identify them and then photograph them, instead of picking them.
Like birders, who work hard to collect an inventory of different recorded sightings, many fungus lovers are in the hobby for the hunt, fascinated by the colours and shapes of the various species.
“Many here take quite a scientific approach toward mushrooms,” Hircock said.
The South Vancouver Island Mycological Society mushroom show is on Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Cordova Bay 55+ Association, 5238 Cordova Bay Rd.
For more information, go to the website of South Vancouver Island Mycological Society at svims.ca.
