“[Fungi open] our eyes to a world that’s existed for millions of years and will continue to do so, regardless of human infrastructure, destruction, or the anthropocentric ideals that still permeate our culture,” Dylan says. “People get way more engaged with nature when they start noticing mushrooms.”

“Teal Bradley, a returning participant at the club’s Forest Glen Woods meetup, agrees. “What I love about these meetups is that you slow down and look at all of the little things—the bugs, the plants, the mushrooms—and you feel like you’re exploring,” Bradley says. “I didn’t know much about mushrooms at first, and I’m learning a lot—not just about mushrooms, but about birds, plants, animals, and how everything lives together.”

Bradley knows firsthand that if you attend a Northern Mycology Club meetup, you just might make a discovery. Dylan and Mead document their findings on iNaturalist, a social network where anyone can share photos of plants, animals, fungi, and more—and they encourage their meetup attendees to get in on the action. At his first meetup, Bradley spotted a tiny, cup-like fungus from the genus Merismodes and became the second person in Illinois to observe and document the fungus on iNaturalist. The first observer? Dylan, of course.