Think Fungi

The Great North American FungiQuest had its inaugural debut in 2022 and it was a much larger success than we anticipated. We wanted to summarize everything in this article, our FungiQuest 2022 Recap. From September 15 to October 15, North Americans were encouraged to get out and photograph fungi. Our goal was a simple one: 50,000 observations in the month.

It couldn’t be easier for the public to participate. You simply take photos and upload them as an observation to one of six platforms with which we collected data. In North America the top two observation platforms for fungi are iNaturalist and Mushroom Observer. QuestaGame‘s novel approach of gamifying observations piqued the interest of many and was a leader in identification. Beyond those three, FungiQuest pulled observations from CitSci, NatureSpots and Observation.org.

Check out all the observations, contests, prizes right here.

For the public, all they had to do was upload their observations. We encouraged those with more experience to spend time providing much needed identification of all the observations coming in.

How the event unfolded

Six days into FungiQuest it became clear that we were going to blow past the goal of 50,000 observations. On Day 9 we were excited to post that we had hit the goal, and revised our goal accordingly. If we kept up the momentum, we should have been able to hit 150,000 observations by Day 30.

By Day 30, on our last day, we had recorded 148,214 observations. We did fall just short of our revised goal. Nonetheless, we are obviously super excited that we achieved 3x the number of observations that we had initially expected. There were definitely some comments from the public as to why we need more observations, like “Aren’t there already a lot of observations in the iNat platform?” Ask any conservation organization and they will tell you, the more data, the better. It’s important to know where these species exist and when. The more data we can get, the better our information will be.

By encouraging people to get out, take photos and upload their observations, we can map as many species as possible in as many regions as possible. There’s an extremely important reason to do this. To be listed as a threatened or endangered species, the criteria typically includes evidence that observations of the species have been made and documented, and that the species is diminishing. Since fungi are so irregular by nature, it requires a lot of people and time to properly observe and document this data.

You can also get really lucky! A similar challenge was held in the United Kingdom by the British Mycological Society (BMS). One lucky participant observed a mushroom that the BMS had thought, for the last 50 years, to be extinct on the islands. That’s an amazing discovery!

Regardless, what’s possibly more impressive than the nearly 150,000 observations is the number of species recorded. A whopping 4,393 species were identified in those 150,000 observations. To put this into comparison, it’s estimated there are up to 30,000 distinct mushroom species (fruitbodies, not fungi) in total. Up to 11,000 can be found in North America. The largest North American field guides cover roughly 2,000 species. That can be compared to just 200 bird species and 1,000 mammals that also exist on our continent.¹ As such, observing and documenting 4,400 fungi (and friends) is amazing!

What could be better, you ask? What about observing some rare, possibly even endangered species? We haven’t been able to parse through all the observations yet, however, we do know that at least one observation was of Pluteus aurantiorugosus. Michael Kuo of MushroomExpert.com tells his readers: “I have found exactly one specimen in twenty years of mushroom hunting, so I will add my “yes” to the chorus of authors who say it is infrequently encountered.”

Pluteus aurantiorugosus, an observation by *Snailrocks* on the QuestaGame app: https://bit.ly/aurantiorugosus

Of course, it’s not just quantity. Quality observations, research grade if possible, are very important. We encouraged the public to follow the research grade photographing instructions which include 4 photos of various angles. Furthermore, we encourage participants to turn on their location setting for their cameras. This will use precise coordinates for where the image was taken. As such, we have all the data we need for most species to be well documented.

There are, however, certain species that would require a little to a lot more effort to properly identify. This could range from the determination of the tree on which the mushroom grew, to spore prints or even DNA sequencing. Documenting such identifiable features tends to rest with the more advanced in the mycophile community.

Amazing Community Support

So how did we incentivize people to get out and observe? We were blessed to have a few mushroom-based companies come on board. They care deeply about fungi and know the importance of spreading the word. Canadian companies FreshCap, Grow Mushrooms Canada and Swallow Tail came on board very quickly. American companies North Spore and Mushroom Mountain joined soon after. Guardians of Earth, an Australian game-maker associated with BioSmart was a partner right from the start.

These six companies, as well as Think Fungi, provided 14 prize package giveaways throughout the month. Packages included functional mushroom gummies and capsules, grow kits, various foraging courses, gift cards, shirts, and Guardian Encounters and Spirits inspired by winning observations (to be included in the upcoming Guardians of Earth game). These prize packages were instrumental in spreading the word to those outside of mycological associations. An online mushroom hunt and Instagram giveaway, run concurrently, helped attract the general public and raise awareness of FungiQuest.

Dozens of local and regional mycological associations stepped up to provide support. They have all been listed at the end of this article. They were instrumental at spreading the word and boosting those observations. Another instrumental player was SciStarter who was one of the first to promote the Citizen Science project. They posted an article before the event, continued promoting the event throughout the month, and even held a live podcast episode after the event. iNaturalist posted an article about the event, and QuestaGame stepped up by promoting the event as well. CBC News also covered the story.

Of course, it would be remiss of me if I didn’t mention the support given by the North American Mycological Association, who allowed Think Fungi to take over their Instagram account on the first week of FungiQuest to promote the event to their 19,000 followers.

Think Fungi took over the NAMA Instagram account for a week. This post was 5 days in at 26,000 observations. It would double by Day 9.

The event is now over for 2022, and all the prize packages have been shipped out to their respective winners. We’re finally able to settle down and review the observations. Perhaps more rare sightings are hidden among the data. One thing is for certain though, this event was a huge success, any way you define it.

Looking Towards 2023

We will be bringing FungiQuest back in 2023, but it will be different. We have learned a lot hosting the largest fungi BioBlitz in history. We’re happy we had so many observations, but we want more identifications in the apps. We want more DNA sequencing. Above all, we want to bring in more people. We were thrilled to have over 33,000 people submit observations, but on a continent of nearly half a billion, we need to engage and attract more people. At the end of the day, the overall goal is to get the general public to recognize fungi just as much as they recognize plants and animals.

With that, I leave you with these words by author Merlin Sheldrake: “Fungi make worlds. They also unmake them. There are lots of ways to catch them in the act. When you cook mushroom soup, or just eat it. When you go out gathering mushrooms, or buy them. When you ferment alcohol, plant a plant, or just bury your hands in the soil; and whether you let a fungus into your mind, or marvel at the way that it might enter the mind of another. Whether you’re cured by a fungus, or watch it cure someone else; whether you build your home from fungi, or start growing mushrooms in your home, fungi will catch you in the act. If you’re alive, they already have.” – Entangled Life

Learn How To Identify Mushrooms

We would like to thank all these Mycological Associations who stepped up and showed their support:

A HUGE thank you to everyone who came out to participate!

Media Mentions

How you can help fill out a mushroom map of North America

“The future is fungi”: The power of citizen science to advance fungal conservation

Over 30 thousand citizen scientists make history in Great North American Fungi Quest

FungiQuest