Field Notes for February 2026

 Welcome back to Field Notes!

February 1, 2026

Tilden Mushroom Exhibition. I spent some time at the annual Tilden Mushroom Exhibition this weekend (my first time). The Environmental Education Center was decked out with informative booths, fungi-related art, and mushroom exhibits. One table especially caught my eye – one that featured mushroom dyes. Artist Elissa Callen displayed some beautiful silk scarves that had been dyed with mushrooms, in lovely shades of gray and brown. 

Tilden Nature Area: fungi exhibits in the Environmental Education Center

Mushroom dye exhibit (Elissa Callen, artist)

Outside, three long tables exhibited plates of mushroom specimens, identified by common and scientific names. Many of the specimens were from Tilden Nature Area, but others can be found in the San Francisco Bay Area, Mendocino, and elsewhere in Northern California. The specimens represented many of the common mushroom groups, including gilled, boletes, polypores, bracket fungi, puffballs, jelly, Earthstars, Earth tongues, and lichen. See Mushroom Parts and Types, the Common Mushroom Groups section for a comprehensive list of groups. 

Fungi specimens from Northern California

I also attended an excellent presentation called Documenting Fungal Diversity in the Age of Community Science, by Dr. Brian A. Perry, Ph.D., California State University, East Bay. He gave a related talk at the 2023 Tilden Fungus Fair, called Documenting Fungal Diversity with Dr. Brian Perry (see https://youtu.be/tlz3tJHoeNw). Dr. Perry travels the world with his team collecting and documenting fungi wherever they go (it is estimated that only about 3% of the world's fungi species have been named and documented).

The team works in the field to gather information and specimens, working closely with local Citizen Scientists. They use silica gel to dry and preserve specimens for later study. When the team returns home, they reconstitute the specimens in the lab, create a description, extract DNA, and name new species. The documentation and samples are entered at the Fungarium at Cal State East Bay.

Dr. Perry provided information about some great resources for identifying and reporting fungi specimens, which I'll organize for a later post. With so many budget cuts for science over the last year, he emphasized how important Community Science is for studying fungi.

February 3, 2026

Cooking with mushrooms. I purchased these white beech mushrooms from the grocery store, and decided to add them to a beef stroganoff that I was making for dinner. The mushrooms are cultivated by the Hokto Kinoko Company, and grow in tight clumps from a shared base (called gregarious). They have a standard convex cap, with gilled undersides. They fried up quite nicely, along with some cremini mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus), both of which added a delicious, earthy taste to the stroganoff.

White beech mushrooms (Bunapi champignon)

February 6, 2026

OTHG Hike to Landfill Loop. I recently joined the Over-the-Hills Gang hike to Wildcat Marsh and Landfill Loop Trail—which circumvents Garbage Mountain—near Richmond, CA. Normally a hike that includes the terms "landfill" and "garbage" in its description would not beckon, but this outing turned out to be so unique, interesting, and beautiful in its own way! The trail is on private land, but was built by the East Bay Regional Park, and joins the San Francisco Bay Trail. Anthony Fisher was our hike lead.

 

The Loop Trail circumvents Garbage Mountain

View of Garbage Mountain across Wildcat Marsh
(as seen from the west end of the Loop Trail)

The area is very industrial, including a solar panel farm, landfill, and green waste recycling center; and a view of the oil refinery and its storage tanks across Castro Cove. But there are also wonderful views of  San Pablo Strait and San Francisco Bay, and Point Pinole to the north. This is a view of the Bay Area that most people don't see!

View from the south side of Loop Trail

Cookie break at the half-way point (upwind)

February 8, 2026

Flora and fauna at Landfill Loop. I'm not sure what the Landfill Loop looks like in other seasons, but it was lush and green in late winter. The vegetation is not too diverse, but we encountered many drifts of Oxalis and Aster along the trail. We also saw many seagulls, hawks, geese, and ducks. 

Flock of seagulls congregating off shore from Garbage Mountain

Drift of Oxalis along the trail

Mound of Asteraceae

February 11, 2026

Mushroom hike at Tilden Nature Center. I attended another Mushroom Hike at Tilden Nature Center (this is the second hike in a series of three mushroom hikes). This time our leader was Paula Urtecho, who is very knowledgeable and managed to find many mushrooms, despite having almost no rain for the last month. The group was very engaged and eager to see all the specimens possible. One of the home-schooled kids on the hike was also very knowledgeable and helped find a lot of specimens (his go-to guide is All That the Rain Promises and More).

Hike leader describes the parts of a mushroom

The beautiful Turkey Tail bracket fungi

We learned that, even though Fungi is in its own kingdom, it is more closely related to the animal kingdom than the plant kingdom. Apparently fungi and animals share a common ancestor, making us practically "cousins"! We saw some unusual mushrooms on our hike, which help illustrate the diversity of mushroom types and shapes.

The mushroom cap underside includes ridges (although it is pretty far gone)

Tiny staghorn fungus

One more Fungus Hike at the Tilden Nature Center is planned for February. To learn more, visit the Easts Bay Regional Park District website and search for activities. Rain is forecast before the hike, so we may see a bumper crop of fungi!

February 14, 2026

Bobo Chronicles. Bobo the Husky really likes taking rides in the car. If a walk is part of the car ride, he likes it even more. We took a drive to the Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, and enjoyed a sunny, but crisp, walk along Millionaire Row. The grounds were green from winter rains, but no flowering tree blossoms yet.

A winter walk at Mountain View Cemetery with Bobo the Husky

February 18, 2026

Mushroom parts. This mushroom popped up in the yard recently under the oak tree. Now that I'm learning more vocabulary for fungi, I'll take a stab at describing it. The mushroom cap shape is Depressed (concave, bowl-like, or sunken), but it could also be Infundibuliform (funnel- or vase-shaped, deeply depressed, or shaped like a chalice). The mushroom cap underside is definitely gilled, so belongs in the Gilled Mushrooms group. So far I don't have a name for it.

Mushroom with a depressed or an umbilicate shape

Mushroom gills (foreground) and stem (background)