Baton Rouge Mardi Gras Deep Hypha Meeting: 8, 9, 10 February 2002
Arrive Baton Rouge Municipal Airport , transportation to Ruffin B. Pleasant Hall will be available.
Plan to arrive as early as you wish on Friday (8 February).  The meeting will begin Friday evening at 6:00 PM.  The meeting will continue all day Saturday and Sunday, so you should book a room for at  least Friday and Saturday nights.  You will be staying at Ruffin B. Pleasant Hall on the LSU campus, about a 20 minute trip to and from the airport in off-peak hour traffic.  The meeting will end Sunday 10 February 2002 about 5:00 PM.  See below for the Mardi Gras option.

Be certain to arrange transport from the airport with the people at Pleasant Hall! Also, please read all of the information on this page (down to the pictures).

Participants
Program
Venue
You also can locate the place you will be staying (Pleasant Hall)  and the meeting place (Life Sciences Building) by searching the campus map on the web.  The two buildigs are about two long blocks apart.  The area just off the campus near Pleasant Hall (the white area on the map) is Tiger Town where there is food and drink.   Most campus facilities will be closed for the Mardi Gras holiday.  Highland Road is just east of Pleasant Hall; W. Chimes St. is north (behind) Pleasant Hall; State St. is just north of W. Chimes, and there is a shopping center there with several food places.  Do not venture further north than that.
For food and drink there are Tiger Town restaurants within walking distance:
The closest place to eat lunch on Saturday is the LSU Union, but it will NOT be open on Sunday except for a buffet, so you may want to try an off campus establishment.
Louie’s for sany meal 24 hours a day; famous for breakfasts (omelets, sandwiches, salads, home cooked entrees), 209 W. State St. 
The Chimes for lunch or dinner (local fare including, gumbo, etoufee, steaks, salads, wide variety of beers), 3357 Highland Rd. 
Saigon for lunch and dinner (Viet Namese food), 180 W. State St. (in small shopping center to right, closed Sunday)
Inga's Sandwiches, 244 W. State St. (in small shopping center to left)
Serrano’s Salsa Company for lunch and dinner (Mexican food), 3347 Highland Rd.
Arzi’s (Lebanese food), 276 W. Chimes St. (closed Sunday)
Many other small sandwich and fast food shops are located in the two block area to the west of Highland Rd. on W. Chimes and State St.  Most are open for lunch and supper.
The weather? You may need an umbrella and you may need a coat, but you never can tell until the day before.  Check the Internet before you pack.
Safety first! Do you run or walk early in the morning or wander around late at night? Confine your path to the campus or around the small lakes south-east of the campus.  It is never a good idea to run alone or in the dark of early morning.
Emergency telephone numbers:
The Pleasant Hall desk is open 24 hrs.
M. Blackwell can provide additional telephone numbers for emergency calls during the day, please inquire.  The department offices in the Life Sciences Building will be closed.
Projection facilities in the LSU Annex Auditorium
Ruffin B. Pleasant Hall
Room choices: To book your room in Pleasant Hall, phone and tell them you are with the Deep Hypha group:
If you are coming to the Deep Hypha Meeting in Baton Rouge:
You are all invited to eat red beans and rice at Meredith Blackwell’s (644 Delgado Drive) 6:00 to 9:00.  Vans will arrive in front of Pleasant Hall at 5:45 and depart at 5:55.  Meredith's mother and aunt are cooking the beans and mycological mother's club member Cindy Henk is bringing desert.  The location is about 1.3 miles from Pleasant Hall south on Highland Road, a pleasant enough walk in nice weather. 

Do you have time on your hands before 6:00 on Friday afternoon? Here are several suggestions:

Visit the new LSU herbarium and see the Bernard Lowy collection.  Lowy collected wood-decaying basidiomycetes most intensively in the new world tropics, and there is unidentified material, especially from Brazil. We would welcome requests for loans to help straighten out the fungus names.  Make an appointment by e-mailing mblackwell@lsu.edu.  Mention your interests so we can be ready for you.

The campus has some interesting sites.  The Memorial Tower is a good landmark and in front there is an interesting corner stone display with the name of William Tecumsah Sherman, the first commandant of the institute that became LSU. The campus has live oaks that make our winters green and several fungi have been described from living trees (see below). 

You could check the mycology lab to see if anyone is there (Life Sciences Building 386.  At some point Meredith will go home to get ready for supper.  --You can always help cook if you wander over to her house early. 

Common species (some with perennial basidiomata) include:
Root rots
 Ganoderma lucidum
 Laetiporus persicinus
 Inonotus ludovicianus
 Grifola frondosa
 Inonotus dryadeus
 Armillaria tabescens
Heart and butt rots
 Phellinus robustus
 Phellinus gilvus
 Laetiporous sulphureus
 Hymenochaete sp.
 Hydnochaete sp.
 Stereum sp.
Bark rots
 Hyphoderma baculorubrense (described from the campus by Gilbertson & Blackwell)
 Perenniporia phloeophila (described from the campus by Gilbertson & Blackwell)
Diseases
 Marasmius sp. (rhizomorphs are common if you look at low growing branches)
 
 Post meeting foray to New Orleans Monday and Tuesday
 
If you want to stay over and go on the post meeting foray to New Orleans, transportation will be arranged both directions each day (1 1/2 hr travel time).  You may book a room for Sunday and Monday night at Pleasant Hall when you book your room for the meeting at the same rates.  Please let Meredith Blackwell know when your plans are completed.
Every day is Mardi Gras!  Whet you taste with the images of Mr. Xinmin Zhang.
Return to Deep Hypha
Return to Mycology at LSU
Last update: 23 January 2002
Respond to Meredith Blackwell