The Illinois Mycological Association or IMA is a group of

mushroom A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground, on soil, or on its food source. ''Toadstool'' generally denotes one poisonous to humans. The standard for the name "mushroom" is ...

enthusiasts, citizen scientists,

foragers A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...

, and professional

mycologists Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungi, including their genetic and biochemical properties, their taxonomy and their use to humans, including as a source for tinder, traditional medicine, food, and entheogens, ...

based in the

Chicago area The Chicago metropolitan area, also colloquially referred to as Chicagoland, is a metropolitan area in the Midwestern United States. Encompassing 10,286 sq mi (28,120 km2), the metropolitan area includes the city of Chicago, its suburbs and hi ...

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

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. 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 morels 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 weekend at the

Chicago Botanic Garden The Chicago Botanic Garden is a living plant museum situated on nine islands in the Cook County Forest Preserves. It features 27 display gardens in four natural habitats: McDonald Woods, Dixon Prairie, Skokie River Corridor, and Lakes and Shor ...

. 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 Mycobiota (plural noun, no singular) are a group of all the fungi present in a particular geographic region (e.g. "the mycobiota of Ireland") or habitat type (e.g. "the mycobiota of cocoa"). Human mycobiota Mycobiota exist on the surface and in th ...

of North America, representing the Chicago region.

References

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