LAMS Mushroom Meeting: Berkeley Prof. Bruns

Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Rich Collier (LAMS meetup.com), Wisdom Quarterly

Ernst Haeckel's 1904 Kunstformen der Natur

This is an online meeting of the Los Angeles Mycological Society (LAMS or the "Mushroom Club") using Zoom. Link available to attendees. And if interested, there is a mushroom identification discussion starting at 6:30 pm. The meeting starts at 7:30 pm.

Speaker: This month Prof. Tom Bruns (Dept. of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley) presents.

Program: "Complexity, Simplicity, and Convergence – a tour through the evolutionary history of the Basidiomycota."

There exists a "Psychedelic Sangha."

This talk covers some of the classic examples of the evolutionary process as seen in this mushroom.

When evolutionary convergence is taught, we usually hear about the wings of birds and bats, or the fins of fish and dolphins, but the convergence in the Basidiomycota is equally impressive, with

• mushrooms,
• polypores,
• coral fungi,
• tooth fungi,
• puffballs

Professor Tom Bruns, Univ. of Cal Berkeley

all providing stunning examples of convergence in form. In addition, this mushroom has produced amazing examples of complex innovations, including unique spore dispersal mechanisms, complicated mating systems, and host-alternating life cycles. These complexities have been evolutionarily simplified multiple times.

• Info about all LAMS events (lamushrooms.org)
• Monday, Jan. 18, 2021 6:30-9:30 PM:
• Dharma Buddhist Meditation or
• LAMS Meeting (Meetup.com)