Fungal Diversity Survey, Sebastopol, CA (2026)

05/22/2026

Fungal Diversity Survey is hiring! Help us spread the news — We’re seeking a Director of Communications to join our team of people protecting fungi. 💚🍄‍🟫🫶 This unique opportunity aims to support this nationwide fungal conservation nonprofit by way of strategic messaging and fundraising through digital, print, and news media.

Are you passionate about marketing and mushrooms? The ideal candidate will have knowledge of nonprofit communications, content creation, writing, fundraising, and most importantly, a heart for mycology.

This is a part-time, fully remote position.

🔗 APPLY TODAY: visit FUNDIS.org/get-involved for the full job description. Send resume and cover letter to [email protected].

✨ Share with your mycelial connections!✨ Do you know a mushroom club that’s brand identity is top notch? The mycological community is made up largely by amateur mycologists, many of which do the important work of fundraising and promoting their club, often as a volunteer role. Well, Fungal Diversity Survey has an exciting opportunity to intersect those skills in a professional position.

💌 A lil note from Veronica: Hi, all! I’ve been honored to share about the amazing talents of the entire FUNDIS team and their successes, whether it be photography, community engagement, undescribed species, and much, much more.

I’ve felt so ingrained in this community here since beginning to volunteer with FUNDIS in 2023 to stepping into this position in 2024.

This role leveled up my relationship with fungi from a casual setting at my local park to bringing fungi indoors behind my desk, making meaningful connections through communications. I was able to see fungi through a new lens more interdisciplinary, connecting the dots of habitat protection with land managers, rare fungi data with Red List assessments, and opportunities to learn and/or fund DNA sequencing with my fungi friends here in Pennsylvania as well as countless others throughout the continent we serve.

I won’t be a stranger; the mission of fungal conservation is something I’m carrying with me in my heart as I continue into this next chapter. See you all down the trail at a foray or fungi fest!

04/30/2026

An itty bitty ₗᵢₜₜₗₑ blue polypore with BIG conservation value! Meet Neoalbatrellus subcaeruleoporus 🩵🌎🍄‍🟫

This cap-and-stem polypore is one of the 20 target rare species on our West Coast Rare Fungi Challenge. This observation from eloraa comes out of Cortes Island, British Columbia, Canada.

There are now 144 observations of this species since the West Coast Rare Fungi’s inception in 2020. This distribution data is critical to fungal conservation for this and every one of the four Rare Fungi Challenges’ target species, so shoutout to our community of people protecting fungi for your keen eye. Seriously some mushroom hunting talent to find not only a rare mushroom but also a teeny tiny version of it!

04/21/2026

It’s Earth Week and the 2025 FUNDIS ANNUAL REPORT is HERE! Like our mushroom friends who spring from another kingdom, this upcoming chapter is set to be full of new growth for the conservation of fungi.

We had a great 2025 with the addition of the newest Rocky Mountain Rare Fungi Challenge, our large non-native golden oyster awareness campaign about invasive mushrooms and fungal habitat decline, and our ongoing California Fungal Diversity Survey project’s second year.

🔗 Read the full report at FUNDIS.org

🎁🍄‍🟫: Your Gift TODAY of $10, $50, or $100 Dollars Can Help Us Protect Fungi, Like The Target 20 Rare Fungi Species, Through Conservation Frameworks. YOUR SUPPORT Is How We Promise A Future For Fungi! Give by visiting FUNDIS.org/donate

04/09/2026

It’s SNOWMELT mushroom time, and we want YOU 🫵 on the lookout 👀 for these spring mushrooms. That means you in the Rocky Mountain Rare Fungi & West Coast Rare Fungi Challenge areas!!

1: 𝘏𝘺𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘦𝘵𝘻𝘪𝘭 📸 by Fred Stevens
2: 𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘪𝘢𝘦 📸 by Mike Wood

Simply make sure you joined your region’s Rare Fungi Challenge project on iNaturalist, and then your observations will automatically make it to the project. The Rocky Mountain & West Coast Rare Fungi Challenges are available on Mushroom Observer, too!

03/03/2026

⚠️ SEEKING: 𝘏𝘺𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘶𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘳𝘪 ‼️ The Southeast Rare Fungi Challenege needs YOU to observe and collect this mushroom.

🆔 Identifying features: It is a slightly sticky, cinnamon-to-brownish-orange mushroom with a fibrous cap and veiny, brown, waxy gills that can sometimes seem thick. It has a HOLLOW stem that splits easy. Find it in sandy soil, leaf litter, and mixed woodlands. How does it differ from lookalikes? The thicker flesh of the pileus which lacks the hygrophanous nature commonly seen in 𝘛𝘶𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘢, the tendency of the cap margin to dry to a blackish color, deeper red-orange pigmentation, different habitat (presumed to be mycorrhizal with oaks and usually growing in soil rather than attached to woody debris like 𝘛𝘶𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘢).
📸: Photos by Jacob Pulk

🤔 Why does it matter? This species is either RARE or under-documented. And having numbers of talented community scientists out there with feet on the ground, scouring for the answer forwards real population data science.

📸 You found it! What‘s next? Upload your high-quality observation (photos of the cap, gill, stipe, cross section, and habitat) to , making sure you’ve clicked “join” on the project: FUNDIS Southeast Rare Fungi Challenge. There are currently only 8 observations on iNaturalist! Who can increase that number?

🧺 Collect & dry your specimen. A member of the Southeast Rare Fungi Challenge will be in touch about the specimen to run DNA sequencing and confirm its ID.

🔎 The FUNDIS Southeast Rare Fungi Challenge is one of 4 Rare Fungi Challenges across North America to assess the population of potentially rare fungi. Do you live in the Northeast? What about the West Coast? Rocky Mountains? Find your nearest Rare Fungi Challenge at FUNDIS.org

12/02/2025

Thank you for supporting fungi this Giving Tuesday! 🎁🔗 FUNDIS.org/donate

Support for your fungal conservation nonprofit goes back directly into the mushroom community through Fungal Diversity Survey’s projects:
-Rare Fungi Projects
-California FUNDIS
-Sequence Validation Corps
-FUNDIS local projects
-Fungal Diversity Database

Yes, with your support, we are creating free community science resources to help document and protect fungi across North America. 🎁🔗 FUNDIS.org/donate

11/21/2025

Imagine meeting someone named the “fibercap strangler” on the side of the road! It sounds scary, but it’s actually just a Northeast Rare Fungi Challenge member called 𝘚𝘲𝘶𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘢.

Dr. Rick Van de Poll spotted this roadside find in New Hampshire. This genus parasitizes one or two other gilled mushrooms, causing the production of asexual chlamydospores in their hosts. In the observation notes, Rick mentions, “spores larger than closest look-alike, 𝘚. 𝘪𝘮𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘪𝘪.”

𝘚𝘲𝘶𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘢 seem to like sandy, mesic soil and mixed hardwoods.

11/07/2025

Check out this unique job opportunity to shape a growing field of fungal conservation! Fungal Diversity Survey is SEEKING a Fungal Conservation Director to:

- Lead and coordinate FUNDIS’s conservation initiatives across North America
- Work closely with the FUNDIS Board of Directors, FUNDIS programs (CA FUNDIS and Rare Fungi Challenges), external partners (including IUCN Specialist Groups, Natural Heritage Programs, and conservation NGOs), and academic and community scientists
- Advance fungal species assessments and conservation planning
- Mobilize collaborative projects to protect threatened fungi and their habitats
- Support research, data management, and policy engagement efforts
- Communicate fungal conservation priorities to broader audiences

Ideal for someone with a strong background in biodiversity conservation, project management, and cross-sector collaboration.

This role is part-time and remote (within the United States preferred). For more details including pay and a full job description, visit: FUNDIS.org/get-involved

Apply today! FUNDIS is an equal opportunity employer and committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees and collaborators, and we strongly encourage candidates from underrepresented backgrounds in science and conservation to apply.

10/31/2025

Happy Halloween from FUNDIS, thrill seekers! You never know what sorts of anomalies & freaks of nature you’ll find in the woods. Of all the kingdoms of life, fungi wins for the spookiest & scariest & most fun. Look at , and it’s clear which kindom slays in the costume department. Fungi can feast on decay and turn ants into zombies. Fungi can be… rare.

Here’s 4 Festively Halloween-y Rare Fungi Challenge Target Species

𝘏𝘺𝘥𝘯𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘶𝘮 𝘧𝘶𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘮
FUNDIS Rocky Mountain Rare Challenge
Photo by Noah Siegel

With a violet-black cap, dark violet flesh, and gray spines under the cap, 𝘏. 𝘧𝘶𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘮 dresses for Halloween every day. Upon drying, it turns black.It’s the end of its season (Aug-Oct), and it grows in mixed conifers and hardwoods.

𝘋𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘺𝘣𝘪𝘢 𝘱𝘺𝘤𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘢
FUNDIS West Coast Rare Challenge
Photo by Noah Siegel

A mushroom that looks like it has a bunch of arms growing off of it? Sounds monstrous. Lives in moist, dark areas of mixed conifer forests? Found possibly growing on the decaying remnants of other mushrooms? Sounds spooky.

Before we’re too frightened, think, maybe it’s misunderstood - literally. A very visually similar lookalike, 𝘋. 𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘢, is more commonly found and could be easily misidentified without DNA sequencing.

𝘗𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘺𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘢 𝘦𝘱𝘪𝘮𝘺𝘤𝘦𝘴
FUNDIS Northeast Rare Challenge
Photo by mical on iNaturalist

This parasitic 𝘗𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘺𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘢 fruits on the ooey-gooey shaggy mane (which looks nothing like a shaggy mane anymore).

Its habitat is wherever/whenever shaggy manes like it, but 𝘗. 𝘦𝘱𝘪𝘮𝘺𝘤𝘦𝘴 rarely parasitizes them — and we don’t quite understand why. What is this parasite’s prerogative? Is it a specific forest type? A cold winter? Why are mycophiles excited by questions no one has an answer to? *shrugs broadly*

𝘎𝘭𝘰𝘦𝘰𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘳𝘰 sp.
FUNDIS Southeast Rare Challenge
Photo by Hayden Johnson on iNaturalist

Try to advert your eyes from the 𝘖𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘰𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘺𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘴 Hayden found next to this mushroom. We saved the gloopiest and glonkiest for last — 𝘎𝘭𝘰𝘦𝘰𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘳𝘰! It’s easy to see why the common name is “gluedrips.”

09/26/2025

This is what the FUNDIS West Coast Rare Fungi Challenge currently looks like on . 🍄‍🟫 One question for our community scientists: 𝘉𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘻𝘦𝘸𝘪𝘢 𝘰𝘤𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴 season, anyone? 🍄‍🟫

This mushroom is a perfect example of why it’s important on LET WOOD ROT! It is typically found at the bottom of big stumps or at the base of dying conifers in mature and old growth forests in the PNW.

Protecting this rare species would mean protecting forests from centuries of detrimental forestry practices. This species has now soared to over 400 observations within the Weat Coast Rare Challenge region. We welcome more observations!

Fungal Diversity Survey

05/22/2026

04/30/2026

04/21/2026

04/09/2026

03/03/2026

12/02/2025

11/21/2025

11/07/2025

10/31/2025

09/26/2025

Address

Website

Alerts

Shortcuts

Share

Category