Nature Lectures

As it turns out, this city is surrounded by a big bunch of nature, and those nature-lovers over at the Parks and Recreation Department want to teach you about the wonders of the Pacific Northwest, starting with shrooms. Opening the Discovery Park Trail Mix lecture series, Patrice Benson, president of the Puget Sound Mycological Society, will share her knowledge of local wild mushrooms. Presumably she can provide you with the lowdown on which ones you should eat, which you shouldn’t, and which you shouldn’t but might be fun anyway. Be prepared for taste-testing. Future “Nature Lectures for Nourishing the Mind” will be less hallucinogenic but equally fascinating: butterflies, dragonflies, owls, and killer whales. Discovery Park Environmental Learning Center, 3801 W. Government Way, 386-4236, www.seattle.gov/parks. $10 adv./$12/$48 series. 7-9 p.m. Through March 27.BRENT ARONOWITZ
Thu., Jan. 24, 2008