Christian Schwarz

If you’ve ever gone on a walk with an old-time mushroom picker, you’ve probably noticed that they often lift mushrooms to their noses as soon as they pick them… Why is that? Besides being intriguing, alluring, and surprising, aromas can be extremely important clues for identification. Come take an olfactory tiptoe through the world of fungi!

About the speaker:
Christian Schwarz is an itinerant naturalist from California. He studied Ecology and Evolution at UC Santa Cruz, where his interest in the world of fungi became irrevocable. Although he is passionate about ecology and biodiversity in general, Christian has primarily worked as a field mycologist. He has co-authored two field guides — Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast and Mushrooms of Cascadia, both with Noah Siegel. He primarily spends his time seeking, photographing, collecting, teaching about, and publishing research on North American macrofungi, and has served on the IUCN Red List Working Group for North American Fungi. He is a research associate of the Ken Norris Center for Natural History at UC Santa Cruz, where he has taught undergraduate courses in mycology and community science.