Link to the Masterclass will be found on your Student Dashboard after registration!
(Free for Fungal Ecology Students!)
Thriving in ecologies from the frigid arctic to tropical rainforests to scorching hot deserts, Lichens are one of the Earth’s greatest pioneers of multi-species symbiosis.
Understanding lichen’s interdependent nature revolutionized our understanding of symbiosis throughout all of life — from mycorrhizae to coral reefs to endosymbiotic theory. In this workshop, we’ll dive deep into the biology and ecology of lichens, studying their self-contained miniature ecosystems and how their algal and fungal symbionts relate to each other.
We’ll explore the evolutionary biology of lichens and how they pave the way for other organisms to proliferate in harsh climates. Drawing from Reishi’s background as a botanist and clinical herbalist, we’ll also explore some of the medicinal applications of certain species of lichens and how to harvest them sustainably.
Reishi Strauss is an herbalist, mycologist, and medicine maker born and raised in the Appalachian Mountains of southwestern Virginia, originally descended from Jewish Ashkenazi immigrants from Lithuania and Poland.
Reishi is currently enrolled in the Columbine’s School of Botanical Studies in Eugene, Oregon, where she is studying clinical herbalism, botany, and wildcrafting as stewardship with Howie Brounstein.
In 2019 she graduated from the Naturopathic school Bastyr University with a Bachelor’s of Science in Herbal Science, having completed courses in Disease Processes, Botany, Anatomy & Physiology, Biochemistry, Ethnobotany, Mycology, First Aid, Herb/Drug Interactions, and more.
She owns and operates her medicinal mushroom medicine business – Earth & Spirit Botanicals – designed to heal the planet & her people with sustainably wildcrafted and regeneratively cultivated herbal & fungal medicines.
She seeks to be in symbiotic interspecies relationships with the plants, fungi, insects, bacteria, animals, humans, minerals, and many other lifeforms whom we co-habitate with on this beautiful planet Earth.
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