PSMS Annual Wild Mushroom Show

The Puget Sound Mycological Society's Annual Wild Mushroom Show, held each October at the Center for Urban Horticulture in Seattle's University District, is one of the largest and most comprehensive mushroom exhibitions in the United States. Now in its sixth decade, the show displays over 200 identified wild mushroom species collected from Pacific Northwest forests in the days immediately preceding the event, arranged in taxonomic and ecological groupings with detailed identification labels. The display is simultaneously a scientific exhibit and a sensory spectacle — the combined aroma of hundreds of mushroom species, the visual diversity of colors and forms, and the depth of information available from PSMS experts stationed throughout the room make this unlike any other natural history display in the region.

PSMS, founded in 1964, is one of the largest and most active mycological societies in North America. Its membership spans expert mycologists, serious foragers, citizen scientists, and the simply curious, and the annual show reflects that breadth. Expert identifiers are stationed throughout the exhibit to answer questions and help visitors understand what distinguishes similar-looking species — a practical skill that has real implications for anyone considering foraging wild mushrooms. The show typically runs two full days and draws several thousand visitors, including school groups, culinary professionals sourcing ingredients, and naturalists from across the Pacific Northwest.

The show's timing — the last weekend of October — is not arbitrary. This is when the Pacific Northwest's fall mushroom season is typically at or near its peak, ensuring that the collecting teams can find the widest diversity of species for the display. The weeks before the show are an intense collective effort: PSMS members fan out across the Cascades, Olympics, and lowland forests to collect, identify, and transport specimens that will then be carefully arranged and labeled for public viewing.

The exhibit hall at the Center for Urban Horticulture is arranged with display tables organized by major groups: boletes, chanterelles and hedgehogs, amanitas (with clear toxicity labeling), gilled mushrooms by family, polypores, puffballs and earthstars, rusts and smuts, and specialty categories. Each specimen is labeled with common name, Latin name, edibility status, and brief ecological notes. PSMS expert volunteers circulate throughout, and most are happy to engage deeply on specific identification questions or general mycology topics.

Beyond the specimen display, the show includes a vendor area (featuring foraging books, field guides, mushroom identification tools, and specialty food products), cooking demonstrations using wild mushrooms, a mushroom art exhibition, and tables where visitors can bring their own foraged specimens for expert identification. The bring-your-own identification service is enormously popular and can involve a wait on busy days — bring your specimens in a paper bag, not plastic, and note where and on what substrate you found them. Admission is a modest fee that goes toward PSMS programs and conservation education.