Rebecca Twiss poses with a log of fruiting mushrooms. (Photo Joe Grither)
Immersed and surrounded by nature, Rebecca Twiss traverses through the Yukon Territory with a newfound excitement to document the surrounding landscape and her travels. It is the second week into August 2019 and Twiss has been inspired to join part one of a Fungal Diversity Survey event called Continental BioBlitz hosted on the iNaturalist app, where participants are asked to collect as many pictures as possible of biological life within an area.
“I was camping in Haines, Alaska, and traveled from there to Palmer, via Yukon Territory,”said Twiss. “Every day, I would try to find a place with Wi-Fi so that I could upload my observations and check to see if anyone had identified my previous submissions.”
The iNaturalist website and app is a joint initiative of the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society. The initiative of the project is to share the biological discoveries of the iNaturalists community with scientific data repositories like the Global Biodiversity Information Facility to assist scientists in gathering the data. iNaturalists participants take pictures of plants, animals and fungi then document any identifying details that are then uploaded to the site along with geo tagging the location of the biological find.
“What I liked about iNaturalist is that it’s all information that’s potentially being used by scientists and in the case of some of these where you collect the specimen and send it in,” said Twiss.
Twiss has spent her life intertwined within the landscape of mycology. Her mother Joann Olson held a substantial role within the Humboldt Bay Mycological Society where Twiss would accompany her to events as a child. Twiss during adolescents had turned her interest away from mycology, focusing on getting her bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and a teaching credential from Cal Poly Humboldt, as well as a Master’s in Teaching International Languages from Cal State Chico.
“I can identify mycology and find plenty of edible mushrooms, that just isn’t what does it for me. It’s the pictures, the learning and the excitement of finding new things,” said Twiss. “It’s super rewarding when it can help somebody else who’s doing research.”
Artomyces pyzidatus Crown-tipped Coral Fungus (Photo credit Rebecca Twiss)
Twiss was swiftly hooked back into the world of mycology and became an active participant within the Humboldt Bay Mycological Society.
Part two of the Continental mycoblitz occurred in October 2019 and Twiss led a workshop through Humboldt Bay Mycological Society to teach club members how to use iNaturalist so that they could participate in the event also.
“I wanted to share the excitement that I felt contributing to citizen science,” said Twiss.
The childhood of Twiss was deeply immersed in mycology. Joann Olsen the mother of Twiss had taken the family on foraging outings and the occasional impromptu roadside stop to go mushroom hunting. Olson a founding member of the HBMS expressed that as a children are low to the ground and have an innate ability to locate the hidden mushrooms.
“Rebecca really got into it. It’s a fascinating thing. If you’re interested in the natural world, which she certainly is, and has been for a long time,” said Olson. “Especially with iNaturalist, she really liked learning from it and teaching people about it, I’m excited for her and so excited for the club that she’s doing this.”
This last summer Twiss was hiking in the Oregon Cascades while there was still snow on the ground, where she made a significant discovery of a rare little pink mushroom that grows in snow melt at high elevation. The Fungal Diversity Survey micro blitz that sparked her interest almost 5 years ago, had an event called the West Coast Rare 10 Fungi Challenge every year where it lists 10 fungi that are really rare and ask people to keep eye out for them.
“I realized that I should keep an eye out for a pink mushroom growing in the snowbanks. It was such a thrill to find it! And then to find it again on another hike the next day, “said Twiss.
A Hygrophorus goetzei cap peaks out from the snowmelt. Photo Rebecca Twiss
The little pink mushroom Hygrophorus goetzei was listed as a target species for the Fungal Diversity Survey West Coast Rare Fungi Challenge. Quickly after uploading the mushroom to the iNaturalist site, she was contacted by a professor of biology on the East coast who was eager to have Twiss hike back to the mushroom’s location, gather the specimen and mail it to him.
“I ended up drying this mushroom on the dash of our car because I didn’t have a decent dehumidifier or a dehydrator with me. He’s putting my specimen in the herbarium and running DNA sequences on it, that was fun,” said Twiss.
It has been about 5 years since Twiss made her first iNaturalist discovery and since then she has served as the membership chair, fair chair and newsletter editor for HBMS, streamlining them with the usage of technology.
When I’m curious about a living organism that I’ve encountered while hiking, or in my home or yard, I make an iNaturalist observation to learn more about it. I’ve learned about gall midges, moths, spiders, the western harvest mouse, plants, fungi, and more,” said Twiss.
The Fungi Kingdom is still being discovered and researched, according to the American Society for Microbiology there is a need for further research and discovery in fungal biology. Science is still needed in our understanding of this important group of organisms.
“There’s a lot of mushrooms to discover, a lot we don’t know about them and what they do, and it’s a new frontier. If you have an explorer mentality and you’re interested in science I think mycology would be a great field to study,” said Twiss.
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