Focus on Fungi

From morels to coral fungi to bird's nest fungi, the fungi section on E-Flora BC is developing nicely thanks to the volunteer efforts of a group of dedicated mycologists--Ian Gibson, Terry Taylor, Michael Beug and Jim Ginns--and several fungi photographers whose submissions really make the fungi come to life.

Ian Gibson has contributed substantially to the E-Flora fungi section.  He is developing our fungi species list (macrofungi only), which includes only species with published verified records for BC.  So far the list includes 1737 species, but it is expected to be updated soon.  (The overall number of fungi species in BC is expected to grow substantially--the actual number of fungi in BC may well be many thousands of species, many not yet documented or vouchered).  Ian has also provided a list of fungi to watch for in BC, species that are likely to be added to his BC list.   In addition to his work on the fungi species list for BC, Ian has also provided E-Flora with species' descriptions for the fungi atlas pages. These are extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest, a major non-profit project he has also developed.

Michael Beug has provided a fabulous Introduction to the Fungi for E-Flora. It is well-written and  provides an interesting overview of major fungi groups. He says, "You will discover that fungi rival plants in species diversity and occupy many more ecological roles than any other group of organisms. You will learn how some fungi cause plant disease, others cause human infections, while others like yeast make our bread rise or our alcoholic beverages ferment and still others are the sources of our most important antibiotics and the drugs that help prevent tissue rejection, thus making transplants possible." 

Michael, Terry Taylor and Jim Ginns volunteer their time on E-Flora to identify photo submissions, an ongoing process and one that is growing substantially.  We now have more than 2800 fungi photos in the fungi gallery.  Major fungi photo contributions have been submitted to E-Flora by Jim Riley, Adolf Ceska and Michael Beug--Michael has contributed more than 1200 fungi photos.

Visit our fungi photo gallery. 

 Astraeus hygrometricus (barometer earthstar), photo by Adolf Ceska

 Tricholomopsis decora (queen's coat), photo by Rosemary Taylor

 Oligoporus caesius (blue cheese polypore), photo by Michael Beug

Visit the North American Mycological Association's poisonings web page.