Friends of Merrymeeting Bay (FOMB) is pleased to offer an upcoming mushroom walk as part of their 2025 Outside Summer Series. On September 5th join Michaeline Mulvey, President of the Maine Mycological Association as she leads this walk on wooded property along the Kennebec River in Gardiner.

Mushrooms are the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground, on soil, or on its food source. The generic or stereotypical mushroom has at minimum a stalk and cap with gills or sponge beneath it that releases spores. While the fruiting body of a mushroom is above ground, most of it is below ground in a complex web (the original worldwide web!) known as mycelium.

Participants should dress appropriately for roaming around in the woods and bring a basket, knife and some small paper or wax paper bags. If you have specimens from home you would like help identifying you are welcome to bring samples. This has been an exceptionally dry summer so it will be interesting to see what species have persevered and discuss what it takes to do so.

The FOMB Summer Outside! Series is the warm weather counterpart to FOMB’s popular Winter Speaker Series and this is the last outing of 2025. FOMB’s 29th annual Winter Speaker Series begins October 8th via Zoom and features former Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlop (now Maine’s Auditor) and current Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows discussing the upcoming ballot initiative with a program entitled Voter ID: Solving No Problem.

Pre-registration is required for FOMB outings. Register for this walk with and get directions from Ed Friedman at 666-3372.

The full FOMB Summer & Winter series schedules and details are on the web at: www.friendsofmerrymeetingbay.org

For more information about FOMB’s programs call Ed Friedman at 666-3372.