Szeged Fungus Association aims to promote nature conservation, particularly the protection of macrofungi. We achieve this goal through information campaigns, public lectures, education, research, and providing support to research and conservation organizations. We raise your attention to fungi at events, like the annual fungus exhibition "Pet the Fungi", we inspire you at the Mycology Department lecture series on our YouTube channel, we teach you mushrooms on our Field Mycology course where we provide free and open occasions twice a year to have an insight, we move you to our free and open forays, or you can join our diversity project as a volunteer. The commitment to conservation and fungi protection and expertise are provided by the Szeged Fungus Association.
experience
knowledge
community
DNA Barcoding Support
for the Citizens for Fungi Diversity Project
Szeged Fungus Association started the Citizens for Fungi Diversity project as a capacity-building project for citizen science activity on macrofungi protection while improving data quality. In a short period of time, we have increased the amount of publicly available fungal occurrence data in Hungary by an order of magnitude. Now we provide DNA barcoding support as a quality control measure by partnering with UNITE, the Hungarian National History Museum Fungarium, and the Biotechnology & Microbiology Department of the University of Szeged.
Year 2024 in pictures
Mushroom Gastronomy Lecture on the Central Texas Mycological Society
.. sometimes, but sometimes, we respectfully pick fruit bodies as a food source. As we do so, we need to know nutritional facts and practical techniques for picking, cleaning, preparing, treating, flavoring, and serving.
On Saturday at Tatárszentgyörgy, we joined a FunDive foray assessing fungi diversity. We searched for epigeous gasteroid fungi (puffballs, earth start). The Hungarian leaders of the foray were Bálint Dima, Péter Finy, Viktor Papp. Mikael Jeppson represented the FunDive consortium. The project is powered by citizen science, and its objectives include the development of AI tools for supporting fungi monitoring. Our Open Mycological Library will be enriched with a book, Puffballs of Northern and Central Europe, signed by the author.
MicoBlitz and Wokshop 2024
The Citizens for Fungi Diversity project proceeded with a MycoBlitz and Workshop held in Szálka. In this open, free event, we documented the macrofungi diversity of the surrounding area. Despite the hardly optimal timing at the end of November, we have found almost two hundred species. The workshop topics were aligned to support citizen scientists providing high-quality occurrence data—a guide on taking convincing and aesthetic photos of fruiting bodies, using taxonomic databases, and identification keys. Citizen science is open and has scientific, social, and personal benefits. The post-processing of the assessment data continues with microscopy, exsiccating samples, and resolving taxonomic questions. Our open, free move provided open-access data with the contribution of several dozen members from the iNaturalist community, which we are grateful for.
Field Mycology from Szeged to South West England
We had great forays in South West England with local fungi enthusiasts. Our host was the Flete Field Lab on a foray around Mothecombe. The foray in Exmoor was organized by the Root Project. We forayed on a gorgeous landscape and talked about different topics of mycology with a diverse and open community of participants.
Fungi Exchange
We teach field mycology. We know the local fungi, and we can introduce mushrooms and tell stories about them. We would like to know how you name them, how you treat them, how you protect them, and listen to your stories. We start a cultural exchange program to share our passion for fungi with an international community. The Fungi Exchange is a series of in-person English language events about fungi in Szeged and around.
Pet The Fungi 2024
What a weekend! This is Pet The Fungi! We brought people closer to nature and mushrooms, remembered László Szemere, learned about mushroom self-protection mechanisms, and added new books to the Open Mycological Library.
Introducing the Central Texas Mycological Society ★
Angel Schatz
We're a fairly new nonprofit, and we're still volunteer-run, but our mission is to strengthen the conservation awareness and study of mycology in communities in Central Texas. As a self-directed nonprofit, we believe in bioculture diversity, waste diversion, and ecological restoration through mycological study and community research.
Lyophilized mushrooms donated
The Szeged Fungus Association donated a collection of 50 species of lyophilized mushrooms to the fellow association of Miskolc. The cooperation of Szeged and Miskolc started to support conservation-oriented mushroom exhibitions with lyophilized mushrooms.
In the past years, several organizations have received similar donations, including the Móra Museum, the Szeged Zoo, and the University's Botanical Garden.
The Szeged Fungus Association donated a collection of mycological books to the Somogyi Library. Fungi of four continents can be discovered in these books. Not only in Hungarian but also in English, Italian, German, French, Slovak, Greek, Chinese, and Mongolian. In addition to the reference books, the collection also includes handbooks, mycological textbooks, periodicals, educational literature for youth and cookbooks.
The mushroom inspection system was started in the early years of the socialist era. Its explicit aim was to exploit wild mushrooms as a natural resource for the Hungarian socialist economy. Read the article about the mushroom inspection system and its impact.
Szeged Fungus Association
year 2023 in pictures
year 2023 in pictures
Community feedback
B. B. The entire course was a great experience. I got much more than I expected.
K.A.&J.P. Thank you for making this otherwise gloomy year much better with all the community forays. We are glad to have met you. Special thanks for the full-scale course despite the restrictions.
I.A. Thank you very much for all the information and knowledge you shared with great care and attention. We are very grateful for the fantastic tours.
A.N. I enjoyed it very much. The expertise of the lecturer was stunning. Now I am really glad I enrolled in this course.
S.E. Today was the last day of the course. We took a look at mushroom spores with a microscope... Perhaps, it was the most interesting and shocking experience I had during the course.
T.A. Thank you for the invitation and the opportunity to attend the open lectures of the field mycology course. High-quality presentations.
The Mycology Department public lecture series, hosted by the Szeged Fungus Association, presents macrofungi-related lectures like studies, reviews, and interesting facts for the community interested in macrofungi. The lectures are free, and no registration is required.
The lectures are scheduled for the second Wednesday of every month at 6 pm, on our YouTube channel.