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Fungal snippets
Field Mycology Volume 5(4), October 2004
FUNGAL SNIPPETS MYCO NEWS AND EVENTS THE EDITOR aving just received my latest issue of the Royal Horticultural Society journal I was delighted to see an informative article on edible fungi and how to grow them by the magazines Features Editor Jon Ardle. Illustrated with step by step instructions and photographs, it demonstrates how to grow mushrooms such as shiitake (Lentinula edodes), oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus species), and nameko (Pholiota nameko). A good summary is given of the various substrates and some of the more recent methods (including the use of toilet rolls to grow oyster mushrooms!) and a discussion of the possible yields using the different methods. Suppliers of fungal spawn and growing kits are provided. It is a pleasant change to see fungi getting a high profile exposure in such a prestigious magazine. Copies of the November issue of The Garden can be purchased in larger W.H.Smiths.
H
he next time you collect the common Shaggy Parasol, Macrolepiota rhacodes try looking a little closer, you might just have something different… In a recent paper in Svampe (2004, 50:23-42), Elsa Vellinga takes a close look at the species of Macrolepiota and the lookalike genus Chlorophyllum. Firstly you should be aware that in previous papers she has found that, based on DNA studies, M. rhacodes is much more closely related to the species of Chlorophyllum than it is to Macrolepiota, and she has made the formal transfer of this species into Chlorophyllum. Then, having studied collections, she splits the species into three: the coarsely scaly, bulbous-stemmed taxon that was formerly referred to M. rhacodes var. hortensis becomes the ‘true’ rhacodes (see Phillips p.25, top right), the duller brown and more uniformly coloured taxon usually found in conifer woods becomes C. olivieri (this is common in Britain, see Phillips p.25 top left). Finally a third species, looking very similar to C. rhacodes is matched to C. brunneum, a species described from North America. All three species have different shaped cheilocystidia and differing spore sizes, and all three are now known to be present here. We hope to present more detailed descriptions and photos in a future issue of FM.
T
and many other mycologists were saddened to receive an email from Marco Floriani informing us that the French mycologist Guy Redeuilh has died following a brief illness. Guy was well known and admired for his work on boletes and many BMS members will remember him when he was a guest at the Autumn Foray in Blencathra a few years ago. He did important research on the xerocomoid boletes and co-authored a very useful and informative volume in the series Flore Micologique (No 6, Les Bolets). He was a delightful, considerate man and a wonderful mycologist; he will be greatly missed.
I
he World Wide Web is a unique resource for all things fungal and those resources have just become considerably larger with the arrival of Roger Phillips’ latest venture, Roger’s Mushrooms (www.rogersmushrooms.com).This impressive website looks set to be the largest online library of fungal photographs in the world, covering species from North America and Europe. The photographs are in the usual style familiar to all readers of Roger’s invaluable and well known mushroom book plus some photos taken in situ. Many of the photographs are of species rarely if ever illustrated in mushroom guides. The site is available for free for a trial period of 10 days, then for a modest subscription fee of $12 US for a year. All of the 3000+ photos on the site, plus many more still to be placed there, are able to be printed at low resolution and are available as high resolution pics for sale. Highly recommended.
T
130
Field Mycology Volume 5(4), October 2004 hat a year for waxcaps! Reports have come in from around the country of huge numbers fruiting in meadows and pastures. At a recent study weekend at Nettlecombe Court Field Studies Centre the pastures opposite the house produced a total of 23 species in one afternoon, many of them fruiting in thousands and often in large fairy rings — they truly looked like flowers in the grass. Species found included such beautiful rarities as H. citrinovirens, H. intermedia, H. flavipes, H. ovina, H. mucronata and of course the well known H. calyptriformis. Similar productive meadows were seen during a course held at Preston Montford. Has anyone else find that many species in one grassland in one afternoon?
W
Hygrocybe coccinea whose scarlet waxy caps studded the grass at Nettlecombe Court Field Study Centre in late October this year. Photograph © Di Hall.
131
FUNGAL SNIPPETS MYCO NEWS AND EVENTS THE EDITOR aving just received my latest issue of the Royal Horticultural Society journal I was delighted to see an informative article on edible fungi and how to grow them by the magazines Features Editor Jon Ardle. Illustrated with step by step instructions and photographs, it demonstrates how to grow mushrooms such as shiitake (Lentinula edodes), oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus species), and nameko (Pholiota nameko). A good summary is given of the various substrates and some of the more recent methods (including the use of toilet rolls to grow oyster mushrooms!) and a discussion of the possible yields using the different methods. Suppliers of fungal spawn and growing kits are provided. It is a pleasant change to see fungi getting a high profile exposure in such a prestigious magazine. Copies of the November issue of The Garden can be purchased in larger W.H.Smiths.
H
he next time you collect the common Shaggy Parasol, Macrolepiota rhacodes try looking a little closer, you might just have something different… In a recent paper in Svampe (2004, 50:23-42), Elsa Vellinga takes a close look at the species of Macrolepiota and the lookalike genus Chlorophyllum. Firstly you should be aware that in previous papers she has found that, based on DNA studies, M. rhacodes is much more closely related to the species of Chlorophyllum than it is to Macrolepiota, and she has made the formal transfer of this species into Chlorophyllum. Then, having studied collections, she splits the species into three: the coarsely scaly, bulbous-stemmed taxon that was formerly referred to M. rhacodes var. hortensis becomes the ‘true’ rhacodes (see Phillips p.25, top right), the duller brown and more uniformly coloured taxon usually found in conifer woods becomes C. olivieri (this is common in Britain, see Phillips p.25 top left). Finally a third species, looking very similar to C. rhacodes is matched to C. brunneum, a species described from North America. All three species have different shaped cheilocystidia and differing spore sizes, and all three are now known to be present here. We hope to present more detailed descriptions and photos in a future issue of FM.
T
and many other mycologists were saddened to receive an email from Marco Floriani informing us that the French mycologist Guy Redeuilh has died following a brief illness. Guy was well known and admired for his work on boletes and many BMS members will remember him when he was a guest at the Autumn Foray in Blencathra a few years ago. He did important research on the xerocomoid boletes and co-authored a very useful and informative volume in the series Flore Micologique (No 6, Les Bolets). He was a delightful, considerate man and a wonderful mycologist; he will be greatly missed.
I
he World Wide Web is a unique resource for all things fungal and those resources have just become considerably larger with the arrival of Roger Phillips’ latest venture, Roger’s Mushrooms (www.rogersmushrooms.com).This impressive website looks set to be the largest online library of fungal photographs in the world, covering species from North America and Europe. The photographs are in the usual style familiar to all readers of Roger’s invaluable and well known mushroom book plus some photos taken in situ. Many of the photographs are of species rarely if ever illustrated in mushroom guides. The site is available for free for a trial period of 10 days, then for a modest subscription fee of $12 US for a year. All of the 3000+ photos on the site, plus many more still to be placed there, are able to be printed at low resolution and are available as high resolution pics for sale. Highly recommended.
T
130
Field Mycology Volume 5(4), October 2004 hat a year for waxcaps! Reports have come in from around the country of huge numbers fruiting in meadows and pastures. At a recent study weekend at Nettlecombe Court Field Studies Centre the pastures opposite the house produced a total of 23 species in one afternoon, many of them fruiting in thousands and often in large fairy rings — they truly looked like flowers in the grass. Species found included such beautiful rarities as H. citrinovirens, H. intermedia, H. flavipes, H. ovina, H. mucronata and of course the well known H. calyptriformis. Similar productive meadows were seen during a course held at Preston Montford. Has anyone else find that many species in one grassland in one afternoon?
W
Hygrocybe coccinea whose scarlet waxy caps studded the grass at Nettlecombe Court Field Study Centre in late October this year. Photograph © Di Hall.
131