About Prairie States Mushroom Club

The Prairie States Mushroom Club (PSMC) was founded in 1983 whose primary purpose is to study the  mushrooms collected by its members and exchange information with other organizations and professional mycologists.  PSMC promotes scientific and educational activities related to fungi and promotes the responsible and sustainable collection and use of mushrooms.  Preserving natural areas and their biological diversity is very important to this organization.

Something unique about the club is the amount of mushrooms they have been sequencing.  They have sent in hundreds of mushrooms for DNA sequencing.  You can see the complete list here.

Some of the clubs favorite books are:

• The Scout’s Guide to Wild Edibles
  • This book is actually by a club member, Mike Krebill
• Mushrooms and Other Fungi of the Midcontinental U.S. 2nd edition
• Edible Wild Mushrooms of Illinois & Surrounding States
• 100 Edible Mushrooms
• Mushrooms of Northeast North America
• A Guide to Kansas Mushrooms

Becoming a member

The annual fee for becoming a club member is $10.  You make the payment to the club treasurer.  More information can be found on their website, here.

Special Events

The club has regular forays every month.  Generally a mushroom foray is a gathering of folks to go out and locate, identify, most often collect and all in all enjoy mushrooms.  The club has a list of the current year’s forays on their website, here.  The club would love to hear from anyone that knows of a good mushroom hunting ground and would like to have a foray in the area.

Staying up to date

The main way to learn about upcoming events from the club is through their website.  

The Prairie State Mushroom club holds regular monthly events and would be a great place to meet fellow mushroom enthusiasts and gain some knowledge about mushrooms!