The much-awaited and beloved autumn exhibition "Mushrooms 2023" will be on display at the museum in central Rīga from September 13 to 17 – the short duration explained by the tendency of the exhibits to rot rather quickly.
This year, in addition to the traditional material collected in nature by the museum staff, there will be a bonus exhibition dedicated to slime molds.
"The schedules for setting up the large exhibition hall, picking mushrooms, sorting and consulting have been drawn up, so the Nature Museum is ready for the big mushroom exhibition," assures Latvian National Museum of Nature mycologist Inita Dāniele.
The range of mushrooms will be replenished every day, and the exhibited mushrooms will be arranged in easy-to-understand groups – edible, inedible, poisonous and protected. In addition, the labels will indicate not only the name of the species, but also the recommended method of processing edible mushrooms.
Visitors can also take their own interesting mushrooms to the museum, because quite often rare and interesting specimens of mushrooms end up in the hands of mycologists by this means.
"Let's also expect mushrooms from city parks or small gardens, because valuable finds are not always found only in distant and thick forests, and the situation of mushrooms in populated areas is less known to researchers," said dāniele.
Visitors to the mushroom exhibition are also invited to take a look at the small exhibition hall of the Nature Museum, where the exhibition "Slime mushrooms in Latvia - splendor from plasmodium to spores" opened last week, dedicated to Latvian slime molds and their research. The diversity of slime molds at different stages of development can be seen in more than 100 photographs, including images of slime spores and internal structures at up to 1000x magnification. Over 70 species of slime mold enthusiasts can be examined with a magnifying glass.
More details: https://www.dabasmuzejs.gov.lv/en
