Fabulous Plants and their Fungal Friends

Andy MacKinnon “Fungi”

As the calendar turns to a new year the Sooke Garden club has been busy putting together ideas and events to keep members interested and involved through virtual or social distancing regulations as they change during the year. A schedule of incredible speakers have been planned for 2021, starting with our January Zoom meeting on Wednesday, January 27th at 7 pm, with our guest speaker scheduled at 7:30 pm. All members are able to participate; you will be sent a Zoom link via email to join in. If you are not a current member and would like to join the Sooke Garden Club, please contact Solange by email at Sookegc@gmail.com.

Andy MacKinnon is a “Fungi”. Plants are fascinating. Fungi are fascinating, but for sheer entertainment value, it’s difficult to beat plants, plus fungi. Fungi have been associated with plants since plants first colonized the land, and are requisite partners of almost all of our familiar BC plants.

Andy MacKinnon is a forest ecologist who lives in Metchosin, BC. His recent research interests include ecology of BC’s ectomycorrhizal fungal species. He was lead BC scientist for Environment Canada’s 2017 ranking of our provinces threatened and endangered fungal species. Andy is also a co-author of six best-selling books about plants of western North America, and co-author of the Royal BC Museum Handbook “Mushrooms of British Columbia”, with (anticipated date of publication: June 2021). Each autumn Andy is an enthusiastic participant, speaker and field trip leader for various mushroom festivals in south-western BC.