MSSF Annual Fungus Fair

Hands-on activities at the Fungus Fair include crafts, mushroom dyes, and do-it-yourself mushroom growing kits.

We have many educational tables on varied subjects such as:

- Identification table - bring your specimens to find out what you found!

- medicinal mushrooms

- myco-remediation

- cultivation

- ecology

- lichens

- psychoactive fungi

- toxicology

- microscopes and spore prints



There will be a naturalistic woodland display and tables with more than 300 identified species of locally collected fungi.





MSSF records of fungi collected at the beginning of December date back to 1972. These records constitute a 47-year continuous record of early winter fungal diversity in the SF Bay Area. This historical information may become an important contribution to science as climate change affects our local ecosystems.More information can be found on the MSSF Calendar about collecting forays, and upcoming events

The Fair provides information on the uses and abuses of fungi, with displays and exhibits on ecology, toxicology, and cultivation. Arrays of identification tables display locally collected mushrooms. Campsite gourmands learn how to serve up the safe and scrumptious species through identification tutorials , and sales of recipe books, soups, snacks, and fresh edibles.

KQED ran this spot regarding the 2010 Fair:

One day each December, Bay Area mushroom lovers fan out and collect fungi of all shapes and colors. They then display their finds at the Mycological Society of San Francisco's annual Fungus Fair. QUEST tags along with fair organizer J.R. Blair and his San Francisco State University students as they collect mushrooms in San Francisco's McLaren Park. Then we tour the fair in Berkeley to explore the Bay Area's tasty, dangerous and weirdly wonderful fungi.



Past Fairs

The Mycological Society of San Francisco has been hosting 1 or 2 Fungus Fairs each year since 1969. Fairs have been held in San Francisco County, Alameda County, San Mateo County, and Marin County. Historical information is available about previous Fungus Fairs: