The Horticulture Club held their first meeting on Jan. 27, at 6 p.m. inside the 1000 building, located on the main Fairfield campus. Dr. Gordon Walker, also known as “Dr. Fun Guy” was invited as a guest speaker to give a presentation about fungi and their specialties.
Dr. Walker has a distinguished academic/professional background. He graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry, and completed his PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology at UC Davis.
Post grad, he worked at Opus One Winery while focusing on isolating wild yeast and developing new wine fermentation technology. He also spent time working with biotech companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. Walker then returned to UC Davis, where he completed his post doctoral on fermentation and control.
The first informational slide he began with was: “Where are fungi and what do they do?”.
“You guys are probably familiar with the fungi that are in soil, and they’re doing degradation of dead stuff. They are working and living in symbiosis with living plants, as mycorrhizal relationships…but they’re also on the surface of any leaf,” he said.
Furthermore, Dr. Fun Guy explained that there are fungi inside plants and the ocean.
“There’s a lot of aquatic fungi that we know basically nothing about. It’s a big, sort of, like, dark area that we know that they’re here, but we filled over to understand what they’re doing,” he added. “But they’re in every, like, applying ecosystem on the plant, which is pretty cool, both saltwater and fresh water.”
Throughout the presentation he stated a variety of fun facts about fungi. There was one that stood out to the audience.
“I hate to tell you this, but there are yeast that lives on the oily exudate from your skin, and it’s good, because they eat the oil, so you’re not too oily. However if you have ever had dandruff; it is an overgrowth of that yeast,” he said.
After the presentation, he announced that he was having a meet and greet/book signing at the front of the room, of his new book called Dr. Fun Guy’s Passport to Kingdom Fungi: A Scientist’s Guide to the Wild and Wonderful World of Mushrooms, Molds, and More. Originally published on February 18, 2025.
When asked about his favorite mushroom he responded with,
“I will say hydenellum peckii is usually my kind of like token go-to because I just love vegetation with the red droplets and stuff, is so neat looking,” he explained.
“The real answer though, is there’s one around here called Amanita Velosa, which is the springtime amanita, and it’s the tastiest mushroom i’ve ever tried, hands down like bar.”
Post Meet and Greet, the Horticulture club continued with their club activities. Apart from hosting Dr. Gordon Walker, they held a pot luck, seed exchange, and raffle during the meeting.
Advisor Sandra Diehl and the president announced that they are welcome to accept any suggestions regarding club affairs and future guest speakers related to horticulture.
The next club meeting will be held on Feb. 25, 2026 in the 1000 building, on the main Fairfield campus.
