Dylan and Mead Taylor

We are Mead and Dylan Taylor. We are the cofounders of Chicago Mushroom Club. We are amateur mycologists, public speakers, community organizers, and educators.

Mead’s passion for fungi originated from a place of food insecurity; after learning enough to feed herself, she started noticing more non-edible species. This origin has imbibed Chicago Mushroom Club’s mission with activism for those who may not have access. It inspired her to begin to study urban fungi, an often overlooked sector of mycology. Mead has documented over 250 species of fungi within the city (not including nature preserves), often photographing the same species hundreds of times to highlight population density, climate effect, morphological variance, and substrate preferences.

Dylan is currently a volunteer curator for iNaturalist where he has contributed over 25,000 fungal identifications and extended multiple species range maps. His main focus is on identification of fungi through microscopic and macroscopic analysis, specializing in Midwest species.

Mead and Dylan have worked internationally at fungus festivals, contributing to programming, presenting, and identifying fungal specimens. They’ve collaborated with Northwestern University, UIC, Chicago Public Libraries, Chicago Botanic Gardens, Urban Rivers, and many other community organizations to provide education in the field of Mycology.

Chicago Mushroom Club is currently researching fungal diversity in Graceland Cemetery as well as succession of urban fungi within the city of Chicago. As a pair, Mead and Dylan have documented 450 species of fungi within Chicago’s city limits. Many of these fungi had not been documented in Chicago before, and many hadn’t even been documented in Illinois.