Who’s behind Chicago Mushroom Club?

Chicago Mushroom Club is an anti-capitalist citizen scientist collective focused on sharing knowledge, skills, resources, and of course harvests with our community.

Our purpose is to encourage interest and education in Mycology, document local fungi, and work with the community to decrease the fear of mushrooms.

We host forays, cookouts, workshops, and virtual seminars to give our community the free education they deserve. Knowledge should never be kept behind a pay wall.

 

Co-Founder Mead

Mead likes frogs, fungi, biomimicry, art and garbage. Message her photos of yours on Instagram @mmmeaddd

Mead’s passion for fungi originated from a place of food insecurity; after learning enough to feed herself, she started noticing more non-edible species. This origin has imbibed Chicago Mushroom Club’s mission with activism for those who may not have access. It inspired her to begin to study urban fungi, an often overlooked sector of mycology. Mead has documented over 250 species of fungi within the city (not including nature preserves), often photographing the same species hundreds of times to highlight population density, climate effect, morphological variance, and substrate preferences. 

bearded man in polo

Co-Founder Dylan

Dylan likes science and movies. He also likes writing and watching ridiculous video essays on YouTube.

Dylan is currently a volunteer curator for iNaturalist where he has contributed over 25,000 fungal identifications and extended multiple species range maps. His main focus is on identification of fungi through microscopic and macroscopic analysis, specializing in Midwest species. 

Follow him on Instagram @dylansthoughts, he’ll identify your mushroom pics for free!

 
 

“‘[Fungi open] our eyes to a world that’s existed for millions of years and will continue to do so, regardless of human infrastructure, destruction, or the anthropocentric ideals that still permeate our culture, people get way more engaged with nature when they start noticing mushrooms.’

Dylan and Mead document their findings on iNaturalist, a social network where anyone can share photos of plants, animals, fungi, and more—and they encourage their meetup attendees to get in on the action. At his first meetup, Bradley spotted a tiny, cup-like fungus from the genus Merismodes and became the second person in Illinois to observe and document the fungus on iNaturalist. The first observer? Dylan, of course. “

- Thrillist Chicago, 2023

Dylan and Mead dove deep into their love of fungi in 2017. CMC was founded at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan in 2021. The club existed as a school entity for the first year, hosting outings weekly and offering virtual seminars. Mead and Dylan moved to Chicago in the beginning of 2022 to pursue personal growth. CMC came along with them. Now, the club is an advocate of urban Mycology and appreciating nature in densely-populated areas. The club hosts in-person meetups of all sorts as well as virtual seminars for learning about the wonders of Mycology.