The Illinois Mycological Association or IMA is a group of

mushroom A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing Sporocarp (fungi), fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or another food source. ''Toadstool'' generally refers to a poisonous mushroom. The standard for the n ...

enthusiasts, citizen scientists, foragers, and professional mycologists based in the

Chicago area The Chicago metropolitan area, also referred to as Chicagoland, is the largest metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Illinois, and the Midwest, containing the City of Chicago along with its surrounding suburbs and satellite cities ...

Overview

Meetings are held monthly, except in some winter months, at the Niles Historical & Cultural Center. Originally meetings were held at the

Field Museum of Natural History The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educationa ...

, and later at North Park Village Nature Center, both in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. The meetings usually include a lecture from a professional mycologist or author and are free and open to the public. However, only members can attend the mushroom forays, or hunts, which are the best way to identify local fungi. These happen a couple times a month from the first foray for

morel ''Morchella'', the true morels, is a genus of edible sac fungi closely related to anatomically simpler cup fungi in the order Pezizales ( division Ascomycota). These distinctive fungi have a honeycomb appearance due to the network of ridges ...

s and other spring mushrooms at Kankakee River State Park in late April or early May, until the September foray to gather displays for the Annual Mushroom Show. The free public show is every year during

Labor Day Labor Day is a Federal holidays in the United States, federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday of September to honor and recognize the Labor history of the United States, American labor movement and the works and con ...

weekend at the Chicago Botanic Garden. The monthly newsletter has been called ''Fungus Friends'' since 1993, but was published before then without a title. The newsletter is where the details for the locations for the forays are listed. The IMA is a participant in the North American Mycoflora Project, which will identify and map the mycobiota of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

, representing the Chicago region.

References

Mycology organizations Science and technology in Illinois Organizations based in Illinois 1973 establishments in Illinois Scientific organizations established in 1973 {{mycology-org-stub