January 20th: Field Day #1 in Ranomafana National Park

Morning at the bungalows by the river

Morning light

 We wake up bright and early, or maybe even earlier than bright, on Monday morning. I quickly get ready and step outside the bungalow to enjoy the morning air on the river. A neighbor is doing the same just next to me. People are washing their clothes and bathing early in the day before it gets too hot. It is so humid, my hair is frizzing up, so I tuck them into two little buns under my neon orange Hangout Fest hat and jump in the back of the car ready for our first day of collecting in the field! Ah! I can not tell you how long I have been waiting for this day, and it is finally here. So stoked! Rocky has already bought some fruit for the field and is loading up the car.

We grab a nice little breakfast of rice porridge, and some samosas with zebu meat for a little fat and protein. Food at these little hotely restaurants are fast and super tasty. Everything is ready to be eaten and since there are not many options pointing and nodding my head is all I need to do to get served, though Rocky clarifies everything just so there is no miscommunication.

After breakfast, we join up with Dada Paul, our Ranomafana plant guru, and get our permits to collect from the forest service office. Rocky, again, makes everything as smooth and easy as possible. This man is so good at his job. He is an inspiration to us all. Three cheers for Rocky! While waiting for paperwork to be completed Danny, Emile, and I take the lull as an opportunity to start looking for mushrooms and low and behold, we find exactly what we’re looking for immediately. Marasmius! Even the beautiful little pink Marasmius haematocephalus. Wow! Right here. I am so relived. I knew they would be here, but it’s just nice to finally see them, to know I have not come all this way for nothing. It looks like a prosperous Marasmius day.  I take some quick notes on them, snap some photos, and meet the official park people to finish the paperwork. Before we know it we are on our way!
Ranomafana park is pretty big, and we have plans to explore three different parts.

Marasmius haematocephalus

Today we surveyed the lowland secondary forest ecosystem. We assemble everyone outside the entrance and Danny and I give a kind of pep-talk with Rocky as our translator. We show everyone the Marasmius we just collected and tell them to go slow, this is a game of patience and hunching over the ground a lot. Everyone gets the idea though, and we move on in. We couldn’t walk more than a few meters before stumbling upon a nice collection. Simultaneously, Danny found some sweet Cordyceps, and so we take our first field notes. Searching for tiny mushrooms is a slow process. If you walk too quickly you might miss them, I don’t think anyone expected to take so much time walking so short a distance.

Phallus indusiatus

Illustrated map of RMP

Marasmius sp.

We kept finding one interesting fungus after another. I even found a nice Phallus! I don’t linger on non-project mushrooms too long, just enough to know they are here. ;) We eventually got to a bridge to cross a raging river into the park (check out the little map). Once we got into the thick of the park the atmosphere totally changed. The air was dense, wet, and smelled like life that has been stewing in morning dew. I mean this is some seriously thick forest, we could not really wonder off the trail too much without a machete!

Everyone was very helpful. Dada Paul and Rocky identified every single substrate we handed them. I would give this amazing man a small twig or the sad remains of a mostly decomposed leaf and he would take it in his hands, examine it for just a moment, and quietly inform us of the genus and often the species! I do not know what I would do without the help of all of our new Malagasy friends. Emile has been wonderful! Him and Danny geek out together about all kinds of fungi, and Emile is becoming quite the mushroom photographer with Danny’s help.

Check out this thickness: crazy

I am truly blessed to be surrounded by so much knowledge and down right good people. Dada Paul with his gift of knowing this park better than the back of his own hand, Rocky with his winning personality, charming every person he meets. He makes small talk seem like breathing. Emile with his great sense of humor, and drive to learn as much as he can during our stay here. I will make sure to stay in touch with all these people, for without them I wouldn’t be as successful as I have been. Thank you team mushroom! Thank you for everything.

By about 4:00pm the rain forests get very dark with the tree cover and the sun gone behind the Eastern mountains. We had to call it a day, but we had a good haul for the first day. Plenty of specimen to work on. Now the real graduate work begins: pictures and note-taking.

We slowly make our way back to the bungalows after eating some well deserved dinner and enjoying our time between foraging and working, but we know it’s time, and we get to work quickly. Note-taking is quite a process, and part of a good description. Every detail of every tiny mushroom must be written down. This is my first time doing anything like this, but I have been preparing for months, and I know I am producing some good stuff. Little by little we document each and every little fungus we found that day. Around 10:30pm I call it a night, while Danny works until 1:00am. Phew! It is hard work, but it feels good knowing that this will all accumulate to a bigger picture. A picture of Malagasy mushrooms, Marasmius biodiversity, oh I am just so excited about getting these guys back to SFSU and examining them under a microscope! Cross your fingers and pray that they hold up until then. I have faith that everything will work out just fine, and I have such an incredible support system. Thank you for now, and for always.

Team mushroom from left to right: Emile, Dada Paul, Paul (CAFF/CORE), Rocky, Danny, me