The Salish Sea Bioblitz runs from July 3 until July 12 this year. This bioblitz creates a "snapshot" of the diversity of species that live in the Salish Sea - birds, whales, seals, invertebrates, seaweeds... sadly, I don't think there will be any fungi. Aspergillus live in the ocean, but they're microscopic.

To help out the bioblitz, you can join The Great Salish Sea Bioblitz community. Then if you are next to or on the water between now and July 12, you can make observations and they'll be automatically added to the project.

The event also has a series of online talks about birds, whales, tidepools, art, and culture of the Salish Sea. You can see the schedule or sign up for an event here.

Sarcosphaera coronaria, the Pink Crown,  is a unique mushroom in a genus all by itself; it has no close relatives. It first appears as a half-buried slightly squishy, hollow white ball. As it matures, the top of the ball splits at the center into 6-12 points, which then open like a flower until the mushroom overall resembles a crown, with a circle of points rising up from a flattened cup. The inside of the crown, where spores are produces, is a dramatic purple colour.

observation by corvi

This species is at the center of a historical mystery. Until the 20th century, it was widely eaten across Europe, and many old books recommend it for the table. However, in the 1920s, several people in the Swiss village of Courtételle, where Pink Crowns fried with onions, peppers, and garlic had been a springtime treat for centuries, were poisoned by it.

observation by scruffasus

Multiple families were sickened multiple times that year, and one woman died. The high profile incident was thoroughly investigated and described in newspapers, and people pretty much stopped eating the suddenly poisonous mushroom. There were a few more poisonings in the 1960s, but thankfully nobody died. 

observation by corvi

We're still not sure, a century later, what happened at Courtételle. Scientists have analyzed Pink Crowns looking for for all the usual mushrooms poisons: amatoxins, hydrazine, muscamol, muscarine, orellanine, but haven't detected any. The species does often contain unhealthy amounts of arsenic, but not in quantities high enough to explain the events at Courtételle - someone would have to eat 4 kilograms of mushrooms at a sitting to die of arsenic poisoning. An expedition in the 70s couldn't even find any Pink Crowns in the area where they'd been documented in 1920, so Sarcosphaera coronaria will keep its mysteries a little longer.

observation by vail

This spring, enjoy the sight of the mysterious Pink Crown on our island, but don't eat it!

Here on the Rock we like to celebrate strange things, and we love our weird fungi, but this month's fungus might be the weirdest one yet. June's fungus is parasitic and a bit disturbing, and you may wish to skip the rest of this entry if reading about that sort of thing doesn't sound like fun to you.

The unseasonally rainy weather this June has contributed to an outbreak of Entomophthora, Fly Death Fungus, on some parts of the island. Entomophthora, as you might expect from something named Fly Death Fungus, is a parasite that grows on flies, to their detriment. After a fungus spore lands on a fly, the fungus begins to grow rootlike hyphae into the fly and begin to digest it.

observation by corvi

When the fly is near death, the hyphae grow into its brain and force it to land on the ground and then climb to the top of something tall. As the fly dies, the fungus makes it hold tightly and spread its wings. Then the fungus grows out between the plates on the fly's abdomen as a lumpy tan mass and releases spores. Because the fungus made the fly climb up high, the spores have a good chance of falling on another fly below the fungus to begin the infection cycle again.

observation by corvi

The flies in these pictures are dead and holding onto tall grass seed heads. Dead spore-releasing flies are also often found on chicken coops or animal stables, near areas where there are lots of flies.

Scientists are interested in this fungus as a natural way to control flies without pesticides. It's completely harmless to anything that isn't a fly. Video game designers are also intrigued by this fungus, but for very different reasons - the zombie video game Last Of Us uses an imaginary fungus similar to Entomophthora except it is able to infect and control humans as an explanation for how zombies are created.

Have you noticed fewer flies on the island this summer? Thank the rainy weather and Entomophthora!