There’s nothing Andrus Voitk liked better than tromping along trails through Newfoundland wilderness with a group of like-minded forayers, swatting swarms of blackflies, always in search of the next fruiting fungal body to inspect and document, as likely to toss a few in the frying pan as to save for scientific examination.
The mushroom man of Newfoundland has observed Newfoundland with an unmatched intensity. “We sure have seen the country,” he says. “A real pleasure to look back on.” Although he no longer pursues his beloved pastime so vigorously, it was his love of the outdoors, of getting his hands right down in the forest floor litter that fostered his many accomplishments as an amateur mycologist.
The word “amateur” doesn’t really come close to characterizing Voitk’s work in mycology or, together with his wife Maria, their work together building a community of mushroom enthusiasts, leading to a fungi foraging revolution on the island. This year they celebrated 59 years of marriage. They’ve co-published scientific papers and books while scouring the province to document almost 1,800 species, including up to 20 new to science. Some are even named after Andrus and Maria. The collection resides at the Grenfell Campus herbarium, Memorial University in St. John’s.
Honours and accomplishments
Given that Andrus is more interested in the science of fungi and Maria in enjoying the outdoors, several authorities have feted Andrus for his contributions to the province and specifically for his work in the field of mycology. In 2023, he was invested into the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador, making him one of just 142 such honourees. In 2015 he was awarded both the Tuck-Walters Award from Nature Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Gary Lincoff Award from the North American Mycological Association (NAMA) for his contributions to amateur mycology.
NAMA says it’s recognizing him for “the huge amount of work that he has done to help the residents of Newfoundland and Labrador understand and appreciate the diversity and distribution of their fungi.”
The organization goes on to laud his enthusiasm and ability to plan which results in more and more attention on the province’s fungi by both amateur and professional mycologists. The citation concludes, “by combining his knowledge, his photography, and his writing ability, he has become a one-man natural-history publishing phenomenon.”
A Little Illustrated Book of Common Mushrooms of Newfoundland and Labrador, released in 2007 by the Gros Morne Co-operating Association, is the best known of Andrus’s published works. As head of FNL, he founded its newsletter in 2010. Omphalina publishes seven to 12 issues annually. MykoWeb.com (a mushroom photography site) describes Omphalina as “the finest amateur mushrooming newsletter in North America.”
The publication takes its name from a small, inconspicuous family of mushrooms native to Newfoundland’s barrens of which Andrus is particularly fond. The couple’s two other books testify to their affection for exploring and closely observing the natural world: Bumblebees of Newfoundland in 2023, and The Wild Orchids of Newfoundland (2006), both published by the Gros Morne Co-operating Association.
From Estonia to Newfoundland
In about 20 retirement years, Andrus Voitk went from an outdoor enthusiast barely aware of mushrooms to a regional expert. To fully appreciate this transition, we have to go back to wartime Europe. Andrus was born in 1940 to Estonian parents, both journalists.
“My father had expressed anti-communist sentiments in print,” says Andrus. “When the Russians invaded, we were advised that the future at home was limited, once the occupants settled in.” The family fled to Finland in 1944, then on to Sweden where they lived for eight years before emigrating to Canada in 1952.
“I turned 12 on the boat,” Andrus recalls, “was given unlimited ice cream on the occasion, and was sick afterward from gluttony, not sea sickness.”
The Voitk family settled in Ontario where his father worked as a photographer and his mother as a proofreader. At the encouragement of his mother, who highly valued the profession, Andrus enrolled in medical school at the University of Toronto, followed by surgical training at McGill. He and Maria raised four children while he practiced medicine.
“Once our children were older,” says Andrus, “I did frequent stints as locum surgeon (a physician who fills a temporary position) in more remote communities, including Newfoundland.” His fondness for the place led him to settle permanently near Corner Brook in 2001. He retired two years later.
Even then, mushrooms weren’t on his radar as a retirement hobby. Back in Europe, his parents showed no more than average interest, gathering a few mushrooms like they might pick a few berries, although the outings did kickstart Andrus’s lifelong love affair with the natural world. Rather, Andrus stumbled upon mycology accidentally. When he lived in Toronto, after reading a newspaper story about mushroom foraging, he signed up for a few outings as a way to get outdoors. “When we settled here,” recalls Andrus, “we continued exploring trails, woods and fields. You couldn’t avoid mushrooms. It brought back memories of the times we went out with my mother looking for mushrooms in the forest.”
In 2003, Andrus sent photos of fungi to a cousin in Estonia who had some expertise. She thought them interesting, so Andrus invited her to visit.
“Twenty-four hours later, I get this email,” recalls Andrus. “‘Thank you very much for your kind invitation. We discussed this at a departmental meeting, and the professor authorized for us to go.’”
Suddenly, four mycologists were on their way from Estonia. Andrus contacted the people he’d met in Toronto and members of the local natural history society for help. Together, they organized Newfoundland’s first mushroom foray. About 45 people participated. “Everybody said, ‘Let’s do it again.’” Shortly afterwards, they founded FNL.
Greg Thorn, professor of biology at Western University in London, Ont., joined Andrus’s second foray. He’s been involved ever since, currently as a FNL board member.
“Andrus devised something unique in North America in terms of mushroom forays,” says Thorn. “From the beginning, they collected mushrooms to document their diversity, and preserved and photographed specimens of each species. There’s actually an archived record of every mushroom.”
Andrus recruited New Brunswick photographer Roger Smith from the beginning to help with cataloging, he adds. “It’s a remarkable resource that all starts with Andrus’s informal gathering of mycological friends.”
Fungi forays
When the Voitks and friends get together for a foray, it’s a supportive atmosphere. Forayers share their knowledge, learn to cook favourites, and contribute to science. Experts look over the collection at the end of the foray to demonstrate identification techniques: spore prints, texture, aroma, and physical traits.
In 2008, Andrus and four others set out on one particularly epic foray, a mushroom census in central Labrador. Their report became part of the Labrador Biodiversity Survey by the Wildlife Division, Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Environment and Conservation. For two weeks, they foraged. Black bears threatened their campsite. Black flies collected inside the tents in such abundance, they blocked out light and sounded like rain as they bounced against the fabric. Voitk and his co-authors wrote in their report, “Bug jackets became a uniform, and were worn all day, every day... We became proficient at eating with the jackets on (using either a quick unzip, bite, and zip of the face portion, or by pushing a sandwich up from underneath), and with drinking water through the mesh.”
The team found it difficult dealing with the dull weather, the dangers, and the annoyances, but to a person, the foragers are photographed grinning with glee through the bites. Of the 189 species collected, they report 102 have never been found in previous forays at lower latitudes, an indication of how varied the habitat is across the province.
In the April 2018 issue of Omphalina, Andrus wrote about a special foray when Maria discovered a new species, Polyozellus mariae. The mushroom now named for her is found in mossy, conifer woods and fruits into a bouquet of fan- to funnel-shaped, ribbed mushrooms. When she spotted it, Andrus initially dismissed her claim as a new find.
“Is it fair to claim that this was only the result of Maria’s stubbornness?” Andrus writes in the article. “The mantle of humility does not rest equally well on all of us, which provided me with an opportunity to learn all kinds of useful lessons over and over again.”
Passing the torch
Helen Spencer, the current president of FNL, says of the Voitks, “Andrus and Maria have been very generous of their time for many years.” After meeting the Voitks at a foray, Spencer asked them to put on workshops at the Brother Brennan Environmental Education Centre (EEC) near St. John’s.
“The first time, I had to promise to take my 18-year-old daughter to the next foray, which she did, and she still enthusiastically forages for mushrooms,” says Spencer. “The second time, (Andrus) teased that he wanted a building at EEC named after him. So, we made a sign, had a ribbon cutting ceremony, and named an outhouse after him and Maria.”
Greg Thorn adds, “Maria is incredibly hard working. For the mushroom forays, she would collect, wash, cook, prepare, freeze, and then bring mushrooms to feed 75 people. She was a big part of their success. They’re just incredibly congenial and generous.”
In the past couple of years, their energy has waned. Andrus was happy to hand over the reins of the organization he built.
“One-man organizations die with the one man, or wither earlier if the aged and addled cannot let go,” he says. Since he handed over leadership of FNL and the editing of Omphalina, he takes pride in saying the club has continued to grow and evolve in a way that caters to a variety of fungi pursuits: collecting for the table, cooking, identifying, photography, mushroom growing, and scientific enquiry.
That collection at the Grenfell Campus herbarium is perhaps his greatest accomplishment. Simultaneously, Andrus continues to build and study his private collection. In his home near Corner Brook, stacks of carefully organized plastic bins contain the collected fungi wisdom of the Mushroom Man of Newfoundland.
“Now, it’s going to go to Grenfell,” says Andrus.