Calling all fungi fans: the New Brunswick Museum needs your help

Have you ever dreamed of being a mushroom scientist? Now is your chance. The New Brunswick Museum is starting a citizen science project to document all of the varieties of mushrooms in Atlantic Canada.

Mushrooms across Atlantic Canada can be dried and shipped to NBM to catalogue

Isabelle Leger · CBC News · Posted: May 25, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 6 hours ago

Man kneels in the forest in front of mushrooms — Alfredo Justo, the botany and mycology curator for the New Brunswick Museum, says anyone can get involved in the project that could take years — or decades — to complete. (Submitted by Alfredo Justo )

If you've ever dreamed of being a mushroom scientist, now is your chance.

The New Brunswick Museum is starting a citizen science project to document the varieties of mushrooms in Atlantic Canada.

Alfredo Justo, the museum's curator of botany and mycology, is leading the project and says he needs help.

"This is going to be a big, years-long — if not decades-long — project," Justo told CBC Radio's Information Morning Saint John.

"So we need all the help we can get from people interested in biodiversity and citizen scientists."

Justo said getting involved starts in the field.

Milkcap mushroom species in the field — Justo said the museum needs as much help collecting mushroom samples as they can get. Pictured is a milkcap mushroom, known to exists in New Brunswick and Quebec. (Submitted by Alfredo Justo )

"If you see a mushroom that looks interesting, or if you're actively collecting mushrooms, just take some photographs of the mushrooms, keep the mushrooms as if you were foraging. The difference is that you're going to preserve it for scientific study," he said.

Justo said the collected mushrooms need to be dried using a dehydrator or fan at 60 C or below for 12 to 24 hours.

They can be stored in a small plastic bag and then mailed to the museum. A portion of the mushrooms will become a part of the project's collection, while a small bit will be used for DNA sequencing.

LISTEN | Mycology curator explains how citizen scientists can help gather mushroom data:

Information Morning - Saint John7:06Local mushrooms

The New Brunswick Museum is starting a citizens science project to document all the variety's of mushrooms in Atlantic Canada. Alfredo Justo, the museum's curator of botany and mycology, speaks on the importance of mushroom data and how anyone can help.

Justo said the project is important because there are a lot of unknowns about the mycology of Atlantic Canada.

"Mushrooms are really under studied, especially when we compare what we know about plants or big animals," he said.

Justo said there are an estimated 3,000 species of mushrooms in the region, which is double the estimated number of plant species.

red cap mushroom in the forest — Justo says mushrooms are under studied and the goal of the project is to create a baseline of data comparable to that of plants and animals. Pictured is a mushroom that could not be identified, even with DNA sampling. Justo said it's likely a species of bolete. (Submitted by Alfredo Justo )

But, there are only 10,000 mushroom samples at the New Brunswick Museum and 40,000 plant samples, "so, you see the disparity there," he said.

"We need to get a lot of collections, just to get to the same baseline data that we have for plants or birds or mammals."

Justo said the project will aim to bring our knowledge of fungi at the same level as other species and will help scientists in the future understand changes in the mushroom landscape in Atlantic Canada.

"We will be able — in the future — to look back and say, 'Oh, this species was at this place 10 years ago. Is the species still there?'"

For more information on the project and how to take part, visit mycota.com.