APRIL GENERAL MEETING

 

The Beltsville Garden Club will meet on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 at 7:30pm  in the cafeteria of

 

the James E. Duckworth School at 11204 Evan Trail in Beltsville, Maryland.  The speaker for this month 

 

is Mary Willeford Bair and her topic will be “THE FUNGUS IS AMONG US”.  Ms Bair is a naturalist and

 

nature photographer who has spent most of her professional life focused on the natural history of

 

plants, animals, and fungi in the Blue Ridge Mountains. She has worked at both Shenandoah and

 

Everglades National Parks as a National Park Service Ranger. She holds a Master’s degree in

 

Environmental Biology from Antioch New England Graduate School and is currently employed as a Forest

 

Health Biologist in the Shenandoah National Park.

 

Join us for a slide show where you will discover that there is a lot more to mushrooms than what initially

 

meets the eye. This introduction to mushroom identification and ecology will include an intermingling of

 

interesting facts such as folklore, cultural history, edibility, and examples of how mushrooms are ever

 

present in our daily lives. The program will also highlight the ways fungi can assist gardeners with

 

horticultural endeavors, provide information about how to get started cultivating edible mushrooms at

 

home, and include a hands-on demonstration of different ways to “plant” mushrooms.

 

  As always we have plants for our door prize table and  refreshments after the meeting. The public is

 

welcomed and admission is free. For more information contact Louise DeJames or visit

 

our website, www.beltsvillegardenclub. org