Local Hunting

Mushrooms favor cool and damp. That’s not the sort of weather the world associates with Southern California, but we get enough of it that there’s a Los Angeles Mycological Society, which meets once a month and conducts mushroom hunting trips throughout the area. It’s a good place to start if you’re looking for an experienced guide.

According to Steven Pencall, many kinds of mushroom grow in Southern California, particularly where you find coast live oak trees.

“It’s all a matter of time and place,” says Pencall, editor of the group’s newsletter. “We find chanterelles, we also find morels and there are quite a few varieties of boletes. Wherever there is a good stand of coast live oak, you’re bound to have good mushrooms.”

The group hunts in the Santa Monica Mountains and as far south as the mountains east of San Diego.

The timing of mushroom seasons is as unpredictable as the rainfall in Southern California, because the former depends on the latter.

“Mushroom hunters,” Pencall says, “are probably among the few people in Southern California who look forward to rain.”

The Los Angeles Mycological Society meets at 8 p.m. the third Tuesday of each month from October through June at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum. The group’s next foray is in Rancho Mission Viejo on March 30. For more information, call (213) 292-1900.

Spore Prints, the society’s newsletter, costs $20 a year and is available by writing to 4907 S. Maymont Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90043.