OAKLAND, CA.- Hundreds of specimens of freshly gathered mushrooms will be on display on Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 6 and 7, 2003, as the Oakland Museum of California hosts the 34th Annual Fungus Fair. The beauty, smells, tastes and intricacies of the world of mushrooms will be explored in exhibits, lectures, slide shows, cooking demonstrations and children’s activities accompanying the exhibition. This two-day celebration of all things mycological has, since its return to the Oakland Museum two years ago, been one of the museum’s most popular events.

Fresh mushrooms will be displayed in settings that assist in their identification and mimic their natural habitats. Visitors will see choice edibles and examine deadly mushrooms. Lectures and slide shows will include presentations on mushroom cultivation, mushroom hunting and identification, exotic mushrooms, the use of mushrooms in textile dyeing, toxicology and psychedelic fungi. Cooking demonstrations by Bay Area chefs will demonstrate wild mushroom cooking techniques and recipes. Experts will be in the gallery to discuss mushroom "hunting," poisoning, biology, art, medicinal uses and identification of mushrooms.

Mushroom-related items for sale will include mushroom-dyed fabrics and clothing, books, posters and mushroom home cultivation kits.

Lectures taking place throughout the weekend in the museum’s theatre and lecture hall will include, among others: Dr. Dennis Desjardin discusses how and why fungi rule the world; Ken Litchfield explains how to create your own mushroom garden; Taylor Lockwood screens his new video, The Endless Foray, which includes footage from Thailand, Europe and America; Dr. Terry Henkel discusses the strange mushrooms found in the remote rain forests of Guyana; Dorothy Beebee and Miriam Rice discuss the use of mushroom pigments in dying and paper making, and after their presentation invite attendees to try drawing with "Myco-Stix"; Dr. Thomas Volk, winner of the Mycological Society of America’s 2003 award for excellence in teaching, explores the secret sex lives of fungi.

The exhibition is presented by the San Francisco Mycological Society in collaboration with the Oakland Museum of California. Project managers are Mark Lockaby, Dan Long and Ken Litchfield of the Mycological Society and Tom Steller, chief curator of natural sciences at the Oakland Museum. A large group of volunteers collect and identify the fungi and set up much of the exhibition.

The Fair is open to the public. The admission fee of $8 adults, $5 seniors and students with ID, free for children five and under includes access to the museum’s other special exhibitions as well as the exhibits in the art, history, and natural sciences galleries of the museum.