- Email: [email protected]
Fungi Down Under - The Fungimap Guide to Australian Fungi
Field Mycology Volume 7(1), January 2006 anyone sufficently interested in mycology to read FM, whether ‘academic’ or not, should not run away from papers with DNA-based phylogenetic trees. Never mind if downy mildews aren’t your thing, the problems discussed have resonances in all fungal groups. Think of all the arguments about whether species mycorrhizal with Pinus are the same as similar ones with Picea. They can’t just be cultured to see if they are interfertile because they won’t grow without their hosts. Also never mind the DNA. Just hang onto one basic idea: the more recently two species diverged from a common ancestor, the more similar their DNA is likely to be. Two samples from the same species will come out more or less 100% similar in the region of DNA normally studied, while samples from distinct species will differ to a greater or
lesser degree. If you compare a large set of samples you will get a mass of data on the differences between each pair in the set, needing a cunning computer program to sort out from all these pair-wise comparisons the most plausible order in which these differences might have arisen as they descended from their common ancestor, i.e. a phylogenetic tree as displayed in fig.2 of their paper and in at least one figure in every ‘highbrow’ taxonomy paper these days. Don’t be frightened of such trees.You don’t have to be able to extract DNA to read one any more than you need to be able to draw isobars to read a weather map. Like weather maps the broad outline will be roughly right but the detail can be treated with scepticism. Here endeth my sermon!
BOOK REVIEWS Fungi Down Under - The Fungimap Guide to Australian Fungi Pat Grey & Ed Grey Softback 146 pp. AUD$29.95, ISBN 0646446746 Available from: Fungimap c/o Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne Private Bag 2000, SouthYarra Victoria 3141 e-mail [email protected], web: http://fungimap.rbg.vic.gov.au
ungimap is an Australia-wide community group dedicated to advancing knowledge and conservation of fungi, paying particular attention to mapping the larger fungi, as their name suggests. This beautiful volume illustrates 100 readily recognisable target species. With comprehensively annotated colour spreads of one species per page, this book provides an introductory guide for anyone visiting down under. The photographs are of consistently
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Field Mycology Volume 7(1), January 2006 high quality and many of the species illustrated are exquisitely beautiful. The book has useful introductory chapters on the structure of fungi, collecting and recording and the descriptive terms used. At the back of the book is an excellent colour chart, a particularly useful addition since existing charts are either very expensive or no longer in print. This is one of the best such field guides I have seen and is an inspiration to pay a visit to Australia in the hopes of finding some of these striking species. Geoffrey Kibby
Fungi of Northwest Wales Charles Aron (2005) 304pp. (inc. 12 colour) A4 paperback . Available from the author at 4 Refail Field, Pentraeth, Anglesey, LL75 8YF Email: [email protected]. No ISBN. £22 (inc. p&p). his is a splendid addition to the small but hopefully growing number of British regional mycotas, covering the three vicecounties of Merioneth, Caernarvon and Anglesey (VCs 48, 49 and 52), and thus a vast ecological range from sand-dunes to Snowdonia. In the opening words of the introduction “This work represents an attempt to collate all records of fungi and slime moulds made in Northwest Wales, from the 18th century up to the end of 2004”, an attempt which has been remarkably successful. The only omissions noted are lichenised ascomycetes (for which there is a hint of a separate volume to come) and marine fungi. It does for its area what Malcolm Clark did for Warwickshire in his fungus flora of that county. This is a big statement, but I think justified; there is the same degree of detail and formidable level of accuracy throughout. The layout however is much more spacious and visually attractive, more in the style of Dickson & Leonard’s Fungi of the New Forest. Details for each species include habitat details, months of occurrence, and 10km squares where recorded. For the rarer species individual sites, collectors and determiners are noted and whether herbarium specimens exist. Occasionally there are brief recognition hints. The introductory material includes a mycological history of the area and summaries of its geology, soils and climate. These are followed by notes on 15 different habitats and the most characteristic fungi to be found in each. Some of these are illustrated in 12 pages of colour plates. It is a pity this work and the new Basidiomycota checklist came out virtually simultaneously, as each could have benefitted from input from the other. But the differences in nomenclature are rather few and unlikely to cause confusion. I have just two quibbles: the map on p.276 is remarkably uninformative, and the handling of anamorph/teleomorph connections is inconsistent, these sometimes appearing as two seemingly unrelated species. For instance the aquatic hyphomycete Heliscus lugdunensis also reappears with some of the same data as its perfect state Nectria lugdunensis.
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lesser degree. If you compare a large set of samples you will get a mass of data on the differences between each pair in the set, needing a cunning computer program to sort out from all these pair-wise comparisons the most plausible order in which these differences might have arisen as they descended from their common ancestor, i.e. a phylogenetic tree as displayed in fig.2 of their paper and in at least one figure in every ‘highbrow’ taxonomy paper these days. Don’t be frightened of such trees.You don’t have to be able to extract DNA to read one any more than you need to be able to draw isobars to read a weather map. Like weather maps the broad outline will be roughly right but the detail can be treated with scepticism. Here endeth my sermon!
BOOK REVIEWS Fungi Down Under - The Fungimap Guide to Australian Fungi Pat Grey & Ed Grey Softback 146 pp. AUD$29.95, ISBN 0646446746 Available from: Fungimap c/o Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne Private Bag 2000, SouthYarra Victoria 3141 e-mail [email protected], web: http://fungimap.rbg.vic.gov.au
ungimap is an Australia-wide community group dedicated to advancing knowledge and conservation of fungi, paying particular attention to mapping the larger fungi, as their name suggests. This beautiful volume illustrates 100 readily recognisable target species. With comprehensively annotated colour spreads of one species per page, this book provides an introductory guide for anyone visiting down under. The photographs are of consistently
F
34
Field Mycology Volume 7(1), January 2006 high quality and many of the species illustrated are exquisitely beautiful. The book has useful introductory chapters on the structure of fungi, collecting and recording and the descriptive terms used. At the back of the book is an excellent colour chart, a particularly useful addition since existing charts are either very expensive or no longer in print. This is one of the best such field guides I have seen and is an inspiration to pay a visit to Australia in the hopes of finding some of these striking species. Geoffrey Kibby
Fungi of Northwest Wales Charles Aron (2005) 304pp. (inc. 12 colour) A4 paperback . Available from the author at 4 Refail Field, Pentraeth, Anglesey, LL75 8YF Email: [email protected]. No ISBN. £22 (inc. p&p). his is a splendid addition to the small but hopefully growing number of British regional mycotas, covering the three vicecounties of Merioneth, Caernarvon and Anglesey (VCs 48, 49 and 52), and thus a vast ecological range from sand-dunes to Snowdonia. In the opening words of the introduction “This work represents an attempt to collate all records of fungi and slime moulds made in Northwest Wales, from the 18th century up to the end of 2004”, an attempt which has been remarkably successful. The only omissions noted are lichenised ascomycetes (for which there is a hint of a separate volume to come) and marine fungi. It does for its area what Malcolm Clark did for Warwickshire in his fungus flora of that county. This is a big statement, but I think justified; there is the same degree of detail and formidable level of accuracy throughout. The layout however is much more spacious and visually attractive, more in the style of Dickson & Leonard’s Fungi of the New Forest. Details for each species include habitat details, months of occurrence, and 10km squares where recorded. For the rarer species individual sites, collectors and determiners are noted and whether herbarium specimens exist. Occasionally there are brief recognition hints. The introductory material includes a mycological history of the area and summaries of its geology, soils and climate. These are followed by notes on 15 different habitats and the most characteristic fungi to be found in each. Some of these are illustrated in 12 pages of colour plates. It is a pity this work and the new Basidiomycota checklist came out virtually simultaneously, as each could have benefitted from input from the other. But the differences in nomenclature are rather few and unlikely to cause confusion. I have just two quibbles: the map on p.276 is remarkably uninformative, and the handling of anamorph/teleomorph connections is inconsistent, these sometimes appearing as two seemingly unrelated species. For instance the aquatic hyphomycete Heliscus lugdunensis also reappears with some of the same data as its perfect state Nectria lugdunensis.
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