By Merlin Sheldrake

No prescription or referral is needed, but proponents hope Oregon's legalization will spark a revolution in mental health care. Clients do not need to live in Oregon to access psilocybin services but must be 21 years of age or older, said the state's Oregon Psilocybin Services. A preparation session must be completed with a licensed facilitator, CBSnews said. 

Over to you.

Thank you for your time!

http://www.nybgpress.org/Products/5365/agaricus-of-north-america--preorder-memoirs-of-the-new-york-botanical-garden-volume-114.aspx

Purchased two books the other day.

One being "Mushrooms of the Northeast" by Teresa Marrone and Walt Sturgeon.

Something small enough I carry with me in the woods.

The other one being "Boletes of Eastern North America" by Alan Bessette, William C. Roody and Arleen Bessette.

There are a lot of bolete type mushrooms in my area.

RE: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-07/ku-nnp071917.php

I know the URL above is about a plant (Sciaphila sugimotoi), but it feeds off mushroom and mold roots. Reminded me of something more local to me:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotropa_uniflora

I am looking to expand on my Mushroom Books, and I am not sure which ones I should get first, or if I even need them?

I currently have 'All the Rain Promises...' and 'Mushrooms Demystified'... which I am sure you are all familiar with.

My local Mycological Society uses several reference books in addition to the ones I own, they are listed on their website, and the books I might be interested in are as follows;

~ Mushrooms of Western Canada - Helene M. E Schalkwyk

~ Mushrooms of the boreal forest - Eugene F Bossenmaier

~ National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms

~ Mushrooms of North America - Roger Phillips

Does anyone have any experience with any of these books? I live in Alberta (Calgary) so I am close to the Rocky Mountains, so if you know of any books great for my area (west) that are not on the above list, please feel free to suggest it!!!

...Also saw this book on Amazon and I am thinking about purchasing it:

Field Guide to North American Truffles: Hunting, Identifying, and Enjoying the World's Most Prized Fungi

Matt Trappe (Author), Frank Evans (Author), James M. Trappe (Author)

http://www.amazon.com/Mushroom-Word-Guide-Etymology-Pronunciation/dp/1519686617

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/new-mushroom-species-discovered-in-london-grocery-store-1.2774326

The news article doesnt go into much depth but here is a slightly more in depth doscussion of the findings in an audio file:

http://thumbnails.cbc.ca/maven_legacy/thumbnails/14/561/abhomestretch_20140918_29877_uploaded.mp3

And finally here is a link to the research paper:

https://peerj.com/articles/570/

I see a number of take-aways from all the information in this package.

-Chinese exported porcini are probably not B. edulis at all but rather B. aereus. The Chinese have quite a reputation for shipping stuff that maybe isnt what it appears to be and this might be another example of that. If you want to eat B. edulis dont buy Chinese dried mushrooms because there is a decent chance B. edulis isnt what you will get.

-If finding new species of mushrooms interests you then the place to look might well be the grocery store rather than the forest.

-When you buy a package of mushrooms from the store no one can tell you with any sort of certainty what the you are buying. The same really would have to be true for mushrooms that you collect from the forests.

-It seems likely that trying to identify fungi species through DNA analysis may be totally futile because fungi can mutate faster than the mycologists can ever identify the mutant species through DNA analysis. I have always been fascinated with the common fungus known as apple scab. Apple scab attacks apple trees and of more interest the apple fruit rendering it too ugly to be marketable. Orchardists fight this fungus by spraying orchards with fungicide and some of these sprays are pretty effective in killing the fungus, sort of. The problem is that no spray can kill every last scrap of the fungus and some of it will survive, and the stuff that does survive is bits that are genetically resistant to the fungicide. This resistant strain then proceeds to multiply and attacks the trees and fruit again. The practical issue here is that spraying the orchard with the same fungicide is ineffective because the now dominant strain of the scab fungus is resistant to that fungicide. In practical terms the orchardist can get away with using the same fungicide in maybe 3 sprays then he has to change fungicides or concoct a soup of multiple fungicides to protect his crop. Over the years orchardists have burned through an astounding number of different fungicides and presumably they have created an astounding number of strains of apple scab, each different than its predecessor. The fungus is of course still called apple scab, it just isnt the same apple scab. Im not convinced that the DNA guys can ever keep up with the way mushrooms can mutate their DNA.

-Some of these previously unnoticed DNA variations may or may not explain why a mushroom like Tricholoma equestre can be quite poisonous in Europe but maybe not so much in North America. The big worry of course is will we find a morel species with a DNA variation that suddenly starts killing folks. This may already be happening with for example the orange capped Leccinum.

Here's an article about some recent research into the issue of toxic Trichs.

http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2014/06/fatal-toxins-identified-edible-tricholoma-terreum-equestre-wild-mushrooms