2020–2023 Midwest Mycobiota

In 2020, field collecting was limited. Very few trips were made in the local area and only one to three persons together. Working at home involved data processing of collections and observations in order to transfer records for specimens accessioned to the herbarium.

In 2021, Patrick attended and recorded fungi from eleven forays in Illinois and three forays in Wisconsin, as well as the NAMA foray in Colorado. Patrick continued with the Illinois and Wisconsin forays in 2022 and 2023.

Illinois Mycological Association

Patrick continued as Scientific Advisor for the Illinois Mycological Association. The club switched from public program meetings once per month to online Zoom speaker presentations. Patrick participated in several of these presentations. There were no club forays in 2020. Forays resumed in 2021. IMA members continue to post photo observations to iNaturalist.org.

In 2023, volunteers of IMA began vouchering specimens from field trips and began extracting DNA for sequencing. This will give us better information on the true identities of our local fungi.

Wisconsin Fungal Research

In 2020, Patrick joined a few friends and colleagues for the yearly Northwoods trip to northwestern Wisconsin in the fall and made collections of rare and unknown macro-fungi. This documentation continued for 2021, 2022, and 2023, as Patrick was a yearly guest mycologist for Wisconsin forays.