President’s Letter 1

New Books and a Computer added 5

by Jason Karakehian

Cemetery Erections, by Lawrence Millman 7

Our Culinary Debt to the Fungi 9

by Maggie Iadanza

Global Weirding, by Lawrence Millman 10

An Encounter with Cytidia salicina, 11

by Lawrence Millman

Review of Giant Polypores & Stoned Reindeers 12

by Marshall Deutsch

Who’s in a Name? XIV, by John Dawson 13

Mycology in the Media, by Marshall Deutsch 16

December 2013 Volume 68 No. 4

1

President’s Letter

Dear Fellow Fungiphiles,

It’s December now, but I’d like to talk about an event of a month

ago: the 100th anniversary (on November 7th) of the death of an

admirable and amazing natural historian, Alfred Russel Wallace.

Wallace is best known for having independently formulated a theory of

the origin of species that was stunningly similar to Darwin’s. Like

Darwin, Wallace had travelled widely, collecting specimens and

observing plants and animals. Wallace had made long and arduous trips

to the Amazon (four years) and the Malay Archipelago (eight years).

Both Darwin and Wallace had read and been influenced by Malthus and

his thinking on overpopulation. Unlike Darwin, however, Wallace was

from a family impoverished by poor investing, and had not been able to

attend university. He supported his trips by collecting specimens for

wealthy individuals and institutions. And, unlike Darwin, whose Origin

of Species had one of the longest gestation periods in literary history (20

years), Wallace formulated his theory during a fevered dream in the

jungles of the Malay Archipelago, wrote it up in three days, and mailed

it off to the one person in England he was pretty sure would be

interested: Charles Darwin. He had no idea of just how interested

Darwin would be, but from the recipient’s viewpoint, Wallace might as

well have sent a letter bomb. After two decades of amassing data for his

magnum opus, Darwin had been scooped. However, unlike the

behavior of certain later scientists (fill in those names you’d like here; I

have my own candidates), both Darwin and Wallace behaved

magnanimously, and Wallace’s letter, along with early writings showing

Darwin’s independent origin of “Origin” were read at the same time to

the Royal Society. Darwin ensured that Wallace got credit and Wallace

recognized that Darwin’s patronage helped him enormously. And,

without the twenty years of data summarized in “Origin”, it’s likely that

Wallace’s theory would have been ignored.

2

It is remarkable that Wallace independently came up with this

theory. But Wallace did a lot of remarkable things. He was an

indomitable traveler and worker under horrendous conditions. He

collected, preserved and transported over one hundred thousand

specimens despite theft, shipwreck, and the depredations of mold,

insects, etc. He was able to look at native peoples sympathetically and

without prejudice. He wrote, for example, that when one sees islands

with no government, no police, no law and no courts, without the

inhabitants cutting each others’ throats, it may suggest that the island is

undergoverned, but it equally suggests that Europe may be

overgoverned. In his most famous book, The Malay Archipelago (which is

well worth reading), he closed by stating that many of the advances in

science and technology made in England had led only to massive

fortunes accruing to a minority, while the condition of the majority of the

population has actually worsened. Alas, this sounds familiar to us in the

US today.

At this point you may quite justly be asking yourself why I am

talking about Wallace. I mean, he was a great guy, but what did he have

to do with fungi? In fact, Wallace barely mentioned fungi in his popular

works. I have been unable to find any mention of fungi, mushrooms, etc.

in the books of Wallace that I’ve seen, with the single exception of the

comparison of the effects of chewing certain native South American

plants to intoxication from Amanita muscaria. Not that my perusal has

been exhaustive, but I have tried. In fact, reading The Malay Archipelago,

one gets the impression of a teeming jungle inhabited by plants and

animals but with a total lacuna where the fifth kingdom should be.

What intrigued me (apart from my general admiration for Wallace) is an

article by David P. Hughes et al. entitled “Behavioral mechanisms and

morphological symptoms of zombie ants dying from fungal infections,”

which casually mentions in an aside that this phenomenon was first

noted in Sulawesi by A.R. Wallace (BMC Ecology 2011, 11:13). I couldn’t

even find Sulawesi in Wallace’s writings until I realized that in Wallace’s

day, Sulawesi was called Celebes. But I still couldn’t find the reference.

3

When I followed up the mention in the Hughes article, I found that it did

not refer to any work of Wallace’s, but to an 1886 article by Fawcett that

had appeared in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History (5 XVIII):317,

should any of you wish to investigate further). Because this early

reference was published while Wallace was still alive (and only 63 years

old; hence in full force), I tend to think that it’s probably true, and

probably refers to travel notes that were not published in his books.

Perhaps Wallace thought that the general reader would not be interested

in fungi. But zombification (I think that’s a word) or “extended

phenotypes” as Hughes et al. refer to this phenomenon, is so dramatic

that even in an era less fixated on vampires, werewolves and zombies

than our own (Mr. Darcy: Zombie Slayer? Honestly!) a naturalist --

especially one as keen an observer as Wallace -- might well have noticed

the bizarrely suicidal behavior of ants whose brain cells have been

infiltrated by this parasitic fungus, which causes them to weave about

drunkenly, and then climb up a stalk (but only to a certain height) and

affix themselves to a leaf (but only one with a particular orientation) with

a death grip of their jaws, after which the fungus sends a stem up from

their cuticles, just behind the head, and then releases its spores. In fact,

after infection, the ant consists of the body of an ant with the brain of a

fungus. If that isn’t terrifying I don’t know what is.

The question in my mind now, requiring some real research in

Harvard’s archives, is whether there’s a cordyceps-type fungus for every

ant. (And not just ants -- this type of fungus infects other insect types as

well; we’re just starting to learn how many.) Ants are amazing creatures

and there are lots of them (E.O. Wilson, probably the world’s foremost

ant expert, estimates that the weight of ants on earth is more or less

equal to the weight of humans on earth, although I believe that the

current obesity epidemic is allowing us to pull ahead), and many types

of ants. It’s a rare decade that sees the discovery of a new mammalian

species, and a rare year that doesn’t see the discovery of new ant species.

We know that there are lots of undescribed ant species and Bert

Holldobler in his book The Ants suggests that the final count may exceed

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20,000 species. So my question is: are there as many species of

cordyceps-type fungi that infect ants, as there are species of ants? (To

say nothing of those that affect other groups of insects.)

And yes, I have been thinking of cordyceps-type fungi that

might infect humans. Who wouldn’t? Luckily, we’re more or less

immune (ringworm and athlete’s foot aside) due to our high body

temperatures. Only those poor souls with compromised immune

systems tend to get lethal fungal infections. But, if you were a lethal

fungus infecting humans with such immune systems, where would you

direct your zombified human to go, where your spores could be released

in the most promising environment? And for those of you who actually

enjoy reading about such things, I have two recommendations: a novel

so terrifying that I couldn’t finish it; Spiral by Paul McEuen (a Cornell

professor of physics who was clever enough to take advantage of Kathie

Hodge for his mycology), and “Summit Fever” a short, funny story by

BMC member Larry Millman, appearing in his (highly recommended)

new book, Giant Polypores and Stoned Reindeer: Rambles in Kingdom Fungi,

available from the author (coordinates in your roster), whom we hope to

feature in a forthcoming BMC program.

With hopes that you enjoyed a great foraging fall, and a

reminder to maintain a high body temperature, from your (occasionally)

ghoulish president,

Susan

P.S. After I wrote this, and not knowing that I’d written it, BMC member

Scott Ritter informed me that a TV series (“Grimm”) recently showed a

cordyceps-infected human (well . . . sort of human. Actually a were-

wolf). Here’s the key scene: “he unbuttons his shirt to reveal something

is writhing within his gut. He starts to ascend a tree, where he volks

[transforms] into a Blutbad [man-wolf], and his stomach bursts open in a

mist of gore.” If you read “spores” for “gore,” I’m right on trend.

5

New Books and a Computer Added to the Club

Library

Jason Karakehian

BMC Librarian/Archivist

Seven books have been added to the club library and are briefly

described here. In addition, the author’s family donated a used one-

year-old PC laptop which runs on Windows 7. The Harvard University

Herbaria have generously donated access to their wi-fi. This addition

will allow participants at Monday night identification sessions to search

for online taxonomic resources and facilitate creating lists of fungi found

and identified at each session.

The books:

The Kingdom of Fungi by Jens H. Petersen. Hardcover. See

Lawrence Millman’s review “An Instant Classic” in the Boston

Mycological Club Bulletin of June 2013, Vol. 68, No. 2, pp. 13-14.

Dictionary of the Fungi 10th Edition by Paul M. Kirk, Paul. F.

Cannon, David W. Minter. Paperback. This comprehensive

tome defines every mycological term you can think of. Among

other helpful things in this book you can look up a genus and

learn the number of species currently within it and get references

for literature. Definitions of textures, shapes and colors are

given. The down side? All the definitions that refer to a figure

do not then tell you what page that figure is on! Nevertheless an

invaluable book – keep it on hand while keying out your finds.

Fungal Families of the World by Paul F. Cannon and Paul M. Kirk.

Hardcover. Color pictures of fruiting bodies, thalli, and

distinctive microscopic characters of many important fungal

families. Literature references and descriptions are very helpful.

Illustrated Dictionary of Mycology 2nd Edition by Miguel Ulloa and

Richard T. Hanlin. This is a gorgeous expanded version of the

6

very useful first edition. Again – keep this one on hand while

keying out your specimens!

Tricholomas of North America: A Mushroom Field Guide by Alan E.

Bessette, Arleen R. Bessette, William C. Roody and Steven A.

Trudell.

Ascomycetes in Colour: Found and Photographed in Mainland Britain

by Peter I. Thompson. Only use will attest to the true usefulness

of this recent addition to taxonomic literature of Ascomycetes,

but this book seems to have some promise. It illustrates and

describes over 700 species and is affordably priced if not

glamorous in comparison to Petersen’s The Kingdom of Fungi

which manages to be both. Occasionally the photographs are

underexposed or the subjects not sufficiently magnified.

Accompanying some descriptions of species are simple

drawings of single spores or other microscopic features. The

author explains his methodology in a plain and readable style

and provides a concise glossary and keys to species for each

genus. A handy feature is a table which cross references the

species treated here (by number) with descriptions in other

taxonomic works: including British Ascomycetes by R.W.G.

Dennis, Fungi of Switzerland vol. 1 by J. Breitenbach & F. Kranzlin,

Microfungi on Land Plants and Microfungi on Miscellaneous

Substrates by Ellis & Ellis, and Ascomiceti d’Italia by G. Medardi.

North American Boletes: A Color Guide to the Fleshy Pored

Mushrooms by Alan E. Bessette, Arleen R. Bessette and William

C. Roody. This additional copy was purchased to meet demand

at Monday night ID sessions.

7

Cemetery Erections

Lawrence Millman

Beatrix Potter could not find the courage to draw one. Charles

Darwin's daughter Etty destroyed all the specimens she could find, "lest

they corrupt the morals of the maids." If you happen to visit the old

cemetery in Reykjavik, Iceland this fall, you'll probably find several of

the phallic-looking objects in question thrusting up from the ground and

smelling like ripe carrion.

Oh well, you might think, at least they died happy.

The presumably happy objects are fungi rather than the virile

members of dead male Icelanders. Specifically, they're fungi that have

the not inappropriate Latin name of Phallus impudicus. The Icelandic

name, fylubollur, is just as appropriate -- it means "stinky male genitals."

The English name is Common Stinkhorn.

The Common Stinkhorn is not common in Iceland. Indeed, the

only place where it's been documented thus far is the old Reykjavik

cemetery. Fear not: it's not interfering with the eternal rest of a

prominent Icelander by digesting him or her. Rather, it's digesting

wood chips and woody debris in the vicinity of the graves.

The stinkhorn starts as a white entity known as an egg. At the

right time, the egg will break with a sound that French botanist Jean

Bulliard compared to a pistol shot, and then the phallic part will emerge.

In an hour or two, the fungus will reach full height. Reputedly, its

growth is so dramatic that it can lift up 150 kg of asphalt. (Note: My

own ability in this regard would probably be around 35 to 40 kg of

asphalt.)

8

The carrion-like smell comes from the gleba, a coating of green

mucus at the top of the fungus. This smell, which is usually offensive to

people, is irresistible to flies. And that's the point: the gleba houses the

fungus's spores. Flies land on it and either eat the spores or carry them

off on their feet, thus creating the possibility of another stinkhorn

generation, since those spores contain the genetic material that's needed

to create more stinkhorns.

The first Icelandic stinkhorns were documented as recently as

1990. But the species has existed elsewhere for millennia. In Europe, it

was believed to have aphrodisiac powers, giving the men who ate it

powerful erections. It was also used to cure rheumatism, epilepsy, gout,

and skin cancer. In certain tropical countries, the gleba was spread on

young women on the assumption that it would make them fertile.

I know what you're thinking, and -- yes -- Phallus impudicus is edible,

but only in egg stage. In that stage, the egg's raw contents were once

picked and used to flavor sausages in Germany. In France, those same

raw contents are still eaten as what a friend, a connoisseur of French

cuisine, would call a "dainty." I've tried P. impudicus myself and found

that it had a not unpleasant radishy flavor.

But I don't recommend that you collect the fungus for the table

or the medicine cabinet. Nor do I recommend that you collect it so that

you can show it to your friends and have them say "gross." Instead,

simply admire it. And, if you do in fact happen to be in Iceland, let it

continue its life as a citizen in good standing (so to speak) in Reykjavik's

oldest cemetery.

9

Our Culinary Debt to the Fungi

Maggie Iadanza

● Edible Fruiting Bodies – Wild or cultivated, we love ‘em just as they

are (well-cooked, naturally) or in a variety of yummy dishes.

● Breads – We are all familiar with breads leavened with yeast

(Saccharomyces cerevisiae) that consumes simple sugars and excretes

carbon dioxide and alcohol to develop the gluten, giving bread its

texture and flavor.

● Cheeses – Think of the blue cheeses: Camembert, Roquefort,

Gorgonzola (Penicillium roqueforti and Penicillium glaucum). Don’t forget

Brie with its rind of off-white mold (Penicillium candidum, Penicillium

camemberti, or Brevibacterium linens).

● Sauces - Both soy sauce and miso require the use of Aspergillus oryzae

which ferments to produce the final product.

● Tempeh – Tempeh usually begins with whole soybeans, which are

soaked, dehulled and cooked. A fermentation starter containing the

spores of fungus Rhizopus oligosporus is mixed in. The beans are allowed

to ferment. In good tempeh, the beans are knitted together by a mat of

white mycelium.

● Quorn – Quorn is a brand of mycoprotein extracted from the fungus

Fusarium venenatum. Glucose is added as a food for the fungus, as are

vitamins and minerals to improve the food value of the meat substitute.

● Corn Smut – A delicacy in Mexico, where it is known as huitlacoche,

corn infected by Ustilago maydis has kernels with large, distorted tumors

similar to mushrooms.

● Chocolate – Candida krusei, Geotrichum, and Acaulospora scrobiculata are

three fungi needed for making chocolate. Cacao beans must be

fermented (partially decayed), to remove the bitter taste and break down

the beans. Tom Volk has a detailed explanation of how fungi are

10

necessary for both the growth of the cacao tree and the manufacture of

chocolate.

● Beverages – Last but not least, fungi are used to ferment beverages,

e.g., Aspergillus niger is used to ferment sugars into citric acid, which is

used in many soft drinks. In both beer or wine, yeasts such as

Saccharomyces cerevisiae are grown in a source of sugars (the grain or

grapes) in the absence of oxygen gas; the lack of oxygen forces yeasts to

switch to fermentation and they convert the sugars to ethanol.

Sources: http://voices.yahoo.com/fungi-food-more-than-justmushrooms-

454007.html, Wikipedia, and Tom Volk’s site: http://botit.botany.wisc

.edu/toms_fungi/feb2006.html).

From Oregon Mushroom Society’s Mushrumors

Global Weirding

Lawrence Millman

In the October 15 issue of the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune, there's an

article on a large Grifola frondosa found by a local person. A University

of New Hampshire botany professor is quoted as saying "this has been a

particularly good growing season for wild mushrooms because there has

been plenty of dry weather." Could this be an example of professorial

ignorance, or is it an example of a journalist whose specialty is (for

instance) high school football being told to write an article on

mushrooms? Or could it simply be a prank?

After giving this matter considerable thought, I've decided that

it's probably a forlorn statement of hope. For this has been the worst

fungal fall in living memory. Mushrooms have been more or less

nonexistent. The weather has been dry and windy constantly, with the

occasional variation of windy and dry. Rain has been -- well, I'm not

sure what the word rain means. At any moment, I expect to see a

Bedouin on a camel emerging from the desiccated woods. Welcome to

(as the saying goes) global weirding.

11

An Encounter with Cytidia salicina

Lawrence Millman

Among my happiest moments during this preternaturally dry

year occurred at the Toronto Mycological Society's Cain Foray, where I

was the guest mycologist. After one of the walks, a woman brought in a

willow branch. It wasn't just any willow branch, because it had a

fruiting of Cytidia salicina on it. This corticioid species consists of fruiting

bodies that are somewhat pezozoid at first, then coalesce into a crust.

But what a crust! The context of C. salicina is gelatinous, which means

that after a specimen dries, you can put it in water and voila! it will

rehydrate in much the same way that a jelly fungus does. You can do

this five or six times before the specimen gives up and becomes

perpetually dry.

But what makes C. salicina so remarkable to me and, I suspect, to

many other mycophiles is its color -- bright red or, in slightly dull

specimens, simply wine-red. If you think Pycnoporus cinnabarinus or P.

sanguineus represent the gold standard for red fungi, think again: C.

salicina trumps them almost every time. Unfortunately, the species is

not commonly found, but if you spend enough time scrutinizing willow

branches, you might, just might, find a specimen. And if you have a

good microscope, you can see that specimen's crazily meandering

dendrohyphidia, which look like manic ballet dancers frozen in place.

Whereupon you might say, in the words of the late great Sam Ristich

(himself an aficionado of C. salicina), "Hallelujah!"

12

Giant Polypores & Stoned Reindeer: Rambles in

Kingdom Fungi

by Lawrence Millman

Komatik Press, 2013. $17.50

Marshall Deutsch

No, this issue of the Bulletin is not a Lawrence Millman

Festschrift, but why mightn’t it be? And this author really needs no

introduction to Bulletin subscribers. As you might expect, most of the

twenty-five chapters of this book are focused strongly on mycology and

travel to exotic lands. But there are also equally interesting exceptions:

science-fictiony speculation, descriptions of dietary components more

notable for their unusual composition than for their appeal to the

gourmet palate, and literary spoofs.

Many of the chapters have appeared as stand-alone articles in

other publications, including the Bulletin -- even this very issue. The

book answers a lot of questions, some of which may have been puzzling

you, such as providing a likely reason for why Santa Claus enters houses

via the chimneys.

Although other reviewers have stated that they couldn’t put the

book down once they had started reading it, actually the diversity of

treatments and topics makes this a book, which, with a little bit of will-

power, you can use with pleasure to take an occasional reading break.

The appendix includes a glossary which increases the book’s

accessibility.

WHO’S IN A NAME? XIV

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The genus Thaxterogaster

WHO’S IN A NAME? XIV The genus Thaxterogaster

John Dawson

Thaxterogaster is a genus of gastroid agarics—fungi whose

fruiting bodies resemble mushrooms that have never opened, and whose

spores are enclosed and not released into the air. They are believed to

have evolved from more familiar agarics as an adaptation to extreme

environments. Thaxterogaster, in particular, is thought to have evolved

from the genus Cortinarius. Its most common U.S. species, illustrated in

color in Trappe, Evans and Trappe’s Field Guide to North American

Truffles, is Thaxterogaster pinguis (literally, “Thaxter’s greasy stomach

fungus”), which grows in the western North American mountains.1 The

genus is named after Roland Thaxter (1858–1932), whose publications in

mycology are considered “classics in their field,” due both to their

“meticulous accuracy” and to the “exquisite” quality of the illustrations

that Thaxter prepared for them.2

Thaxter was born in Newtonville, Massachusetts, and spent his

entire career in New England. The youngest child of literary parents, he

was educated at Boston Latin School and went on to earn degrees from

Harvard, as his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had before

him. He received his A.B. magna cum laude in 1882, and following a year

of ill health, entered Harvard Medical School in the fall of 1883. After

two years of medical study he was awarded a fellowship to the Harvard

Graduate School, where he became an assistant to William Gilson

Farlow, profiled earlier in this series. In 1887, the year of his marriage to

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A second species illustrated there is Thaxterogaster pavelekii, whose name,

like that of Bondarzewia berkleyii, is a double eponym: Its specific epithet

honors Henry Pavelek, a founder and past president of the North American

Truffling Society, who discovered the fungus in Oregon in 1984. 2 Quotations are from the article on Thaxter by I.M. Lamb in the Dictionary of

Scientific Biography, vol. 13, p. 299.

14

Mabel Freeman, he published an important paper on the rust genus

Gymnosporangium, and the next year he was awarded both the M.A. and

Ph.D. degrees simultaneously, the latter for a dissertation on the

Entomophthoraceae (a family of Zygomycetes parasitic on insects).

After receiving his doctorate, Thaxter was appointed botanist at

the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, a post he held for three

years. Although more interested in pure than applied research, during

his short tenure there he made several important contributions to plant

pathology—most notably, determining the cause of potato scab,

studying diseases of onions (especially onion smut), discovering and

describing a species of Phytophthora parasitic on lima beans, and

pioneering the spraying of fungicides as a means of controlling plant

diseases.3

In 1891 Thaxter returned to Harvard at Farlow’s invitation.

Initially appointed as assistant professor of cryptogamic botany, he

became a full professor there ten years later, at which time he assumed

sole responsibility for instruction and research in that field. He retired in

1919, and from then until his death held the title of professor emeritus

and honorary curator of Harvard’s cryptogamic herbarium.

Although plagued by ill health that limited his participation in

scientific meetings, Thaxter was a member of many learned societies,

including the National Academy of Sciences,4 the American Association

for the Advancement of Science, the American Philosophical Society, and

a host of botanical societies here and abroad. He also traveled widely,

including sabbaticals spent in Europe, the West Indies, and Chile, and

collecting trips to various areas of the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean.

3 For more on Thaxter’s contributions to that field, see W.H. Weston, Jr.,

“Roland Thaxter (1858–1932): His influence on plant pathology,”

Phytopathology 23 (1933), 564–571. 4 The obituary memoir of Thaxter by G.P. Clinton in the Biographical Memoirs

of the N.A.S. (vol. 17, 1937, pp. 55–64) was one of the principal sources for the

information in this article.

15

Thaxter’s greatest work was a five-volume study of the

Laboulbeniaceae, “a unique and isolated family” of ascomycetes that are

“minute parasites on the integuments of various insects.”5 Published

over a span of thirty-five years, from 1896 to 1931, those volumes contain

descriptions of “hundreds of species” illustrated by 166 plates, the last

volume alone containing more than a thousand drawings.6 In addition

he published important studies of the group of organisms known as

Myxobacteriaceae.

A man of “retiring nature,” Thaxter appears to have had few

interests outside his teaching and research. He maintained exacting

standards both for himself and his students, “hated to waste any time on

trivial or needless matters”, and was “early to his work and usually late

in quitting.”

Overall, Thaxter’s work is deemed to have “had a profound and

lasting influence on the development of mycology and of cryptogamic

botany generally.”7 Besides the genus Thaxterogaster, Thaxter is

commemorated in the names of several other species of fungi (such as

the dung fungus Saccobolus thaxteri) and at least two species of lichens.

Roland Thaxter

5 Lamb, loc.cit.

6 Clinton, op.cit., p. 60.

7 Lamb, loc.cit.

16

Mycology in the Media

Marshall Deutsch

In Natural History for July/August, we are cautioned against

stepping off the beaten path when out hiking in the western United

States, even when the area looks like bare dry ground. This area may not

have turned into a sandbox because it consists of a crust formed by a

living community, of which “the most common inhabitants include

cyanobacteria, lichens, mosses, fungi, and algae.” And in Z Magazine

for the same time period, an Iraqi physician in Basra complains that “It is

like Chernobyl here: the genetic effects are new to us; the mushrooms

grow huge. . .”

But Science for 16 August cheers us up with news that two genes

have been cloned that offer resistance to “Ug99, a particularly

devastating strain of wheat stem rust fungus. . . which could potentially

threaten food security.” Conventional scientific procedures identified

these genes, but another article in this issue describes a Facebook game

which debuted 12 August and which enlists players to match nucleotide

sequences to a reference genome. It is hoped that players of the game

will help to identify genetic variants of ash trees which are associated

with resistance of the trees to the ash dieback fungus, Chalara fraxinea, or

genetic variants of the fungus which are associated with its lethality.

And here’s what we learn from Science for 23 August: “The long-

held view of the origin of shale oil—a buried leaf cooking for 70 million

years under pressure from mud and sand—might leave out a vital

component of the process: fungi. A new experiment suggests that

endophytic fungi—fungi living symbiotically inside plants—can

generate hydrocarbons as they eat away at their decaying hosts. Gary

Strobel, a plant microbiologist says that fungi could have speeded up oil

production by tens of millions of years.” Use of a promising organism

has already been patented. And, of course, fungi can speed up food

production, as Scientific American for September notes in only one short

article (entitled “super dirt”) in this special food issue.

17

In The Boston Globe for September 2, we learn of a video shot by a

Hampshire College student which tells of (shows?) a fungus that infects

“cellar spiders” and subsequently pops out of their leg joints and “makes

this crazy marshmallow pom-pom fuzz.” And from Global Times for

September 4, via Larry Millman, we learn of and see pictures of

“Buddhist statue spouts miracle mushrooms.” The statue is made of

camphorwood.

Nor are salamanders safe from fungi. NewScientist (NS) for 7

September tells of Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans, which has almost

wiped out fire salamanders in the Netherlands. It kills them by eating

through their skin and exposing them to lethal bacterial infections.

Cryptococcus neoformans, on the other hand, does the actual killing of its

(sometimes human) prey by itself. Live Science for September 10 describes

how this yeast reproduces unisexually from two identical parents.

What’s the point? In the process, some of the descendants end up with

extra copies of some chromosomes and this can result in traits such as

pigmentation and drug resistance differing from those of the parents.

In NS for September 14, a reader expresses concern over white

bathroom grouting turning black. The editor and no fewer than 3 other

respondents chime in on how to deal with Aspergillus niger. Need I say

more? Less widely known is how to deal with Chalara, which causes ash

[tree] dieback. BBCNews for 12 September describes one way to start,

which is to map the ash tree genome and look for the genes which

convey resistance to this pathogen. Much more difficult than finding a 3

kg bolete in a Polish forest, as reported by BBC News on 26 September!

And very unlikely to lead to a dangerous blunder such as that made by

Arizona Highways for October, which listed Amanita muscaria as being

deemed edible. When this was reconsidered by the editors, they

removed the issue from newsstands.

Under “Findings,” Harper’s Magazine for October lists a number

of disasters attributable to fungi, including “The widespread presence of

Aspergillus flavus and parasiticus fungi in tropical wheat stores was

increasing the viral loads of the HIV-positive” but no explanation of why

such a connection exists. Geomyces and cryptosporidiosis are mentioned

in the same paragraph, but less cryptically.

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Which brings us to an article in The New York Times (Times) for

October 3, which describes commercial matsutake picking in Oregon.

Larry Millman, who called it to our attention, points out that the article

fails to note that the reason the bottom has dropped out of this market is

that the Japanese no longer mythologize the matsutake, but simply

regard it as a tasty mushroom. Norway, however, is showing increasing

respect for mycology. To quote from an email from Larry, “Leif

Ryvarden, the world’s most eminent polypore expert, has just been

awarded a Knighthood in Norway.” Larry says that he thinks awards

such as this given to mycologists automatically make Norway a more

civilized country than the United States. He has also explored the

interface between mycology and government in his recent book

(reviewed elsewhere in this issue) in which he writes that “Russians may

be eating more mushrooms than anyone else, but they’re also eating

more of the wrong mushrooms. This has gotten worse in recent years.

With so-called democracy, shabby identification skills have become

available to all.”

Chemical & Engineering News for October 21 reports on the

commercialization of the mycelium-based packaging which I panned in

a recent issue. Could I have been wrong and steered you away from a

profitable investment? We’ll see.

But back to judging countries by examining how they relate to

mushrooms. Anent an article on Greenland’s fungus-illustrated stamps

in Spore Prints for September, Larry observes that “Greenlanders are

perhaps the world’s most mycophobic people (they think mushrooms

are used as a soap by a monstrous creature called a qivitoq) which makes

it rather ironic that they manufacture so many mushroom stamps.”

Both Marcia Jacob and a member whose initials are LM called

our attention to an article on the front page of The Wall Street Journal for

October 31 which makes a big deal about the fact that Estonian

mushroom collectors don’t give away their sites. Not like us!

Finally we note that “First farming fungi found in soil” heads an

article in NS for 12 November. It describes the relationship between

Morchella crassipes and Pseudomonas putida. Apparently the fungus first

feeds the bacteria and then eats them.

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Club Officers

President Susan Goldhor (617) 999-6351

Vice President Pam Chamberlain (617) 864-2992

Treasurer Joel Kershner (617) 566-4890

Assistant Treasurer Scott Shaffer (781) 646-3719

Recording Secretary Jason Karakehian (617) 254-7195

Corresponding Secretary Marcia Jacob (617) 471-1093

Executive Committee: George Davis (978) 368-1846

Sarah Boardman (617 242-9680

Ellen Penso (617) 332-8366

Membership Secretary Katie Behrmann (617) 841-3379

Walks Coordinator Doug Brown (978) 568-3629

Librarian/Archivist Jason Karakehian (617) 254-7195

ID Committee Chair George Davis (978) 368-1846

Scientific Advisor Dr. Donald Pfister

Farlow Herbarium and Library

22 Divinity Avenue

Cambridge, MA 02138-2094

Website Administrators Scott Shaffer, Waldemar Swiercz

bostonfungiwebmaster@gmail.com

Website Editor Andrea Ignatoff

bmcwebsiteeditor@gmail.com

Bulletin Editor Marshall Deutsch (978) 443-8609

med41@aol.com

Bulletin Editor Emeritus Moselio Schaechter

elios179@gmail.com

For Information on Club Activities

http://www.bostonmycologicalclub.org

bostonmycologicalclub@gmail.com

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