Often Overlooked Spring Fungi with Andrew Methven, PhD

Often Overlooked Spring Fungi with Andrew Methven, PhD
Andrew S. Methven
Emeritus Professor of Biological Sciences
Eastern Illinois University

While most people are scouring the woods for morels in the Spring, there is a treasure trove of other fungi that are often overlooked or ignored in our haste to find food for the table. This talk will focus on some of the fungi, including morels and false morels, which are encountered in Midwestern forests in spring and early summer. You will see images of edible fungi, fascinating pathogens, and a number of fungi which are ecologically important or mycologically interesting.

Andrew Methven is emeritus professor of mycology and lichenology at Eastern Illinois University. He has taught courses in mycology, lichenology, medical mycology, and field mycology, and curated the Cryptogamic Herbarium (with more than 15,000 collections of fungi and lichens). Included among his research interests are systematics and ecology of fungi, mycogeography, the application of molecular techniques to fungal systematics, and the identification and distribution of lichens in Eastern North America.

His research program has examined the distribution of the mushroom genus Lactarius in the Western Hemisphere, the utilization of biological species concepts in systematics studies of fungi, and the application of molecular techniques to phylogenetic studies in Clavariadelphus, Lentaria, and Macrotyphula.

Recent research projects involving undergraduate and graduate students have examined: The effects of sugar maple removal on the occurrence and distribution of fleshy fungi from endemic oak-hickory forests; the occurrence and distribution of fungal endophytes in sugar maple leaves; systematics and ecology of rust fungi on endemic plants; the use of lichens to assess habitat restoration in fragmented forest ecosystems; fungi which inhabit Spartina (cord grass) in the estuaries of coastal Georgia and North Carolina; and, more recently, systematic studies of species complexes in Gyromitra.

If you have any questions or wish for a zoom link, please direct them to Illinois Mycological Association [email protected].

Recorded via Zoom on April 4, 2022.

IllinoisMyco.org

Often Overlooked Spring Fungi of the Midwest
Phylum Basidiomycota

Agrocybe dura
Candellomyces candolleanus
Coprinellus micaceus
Crepidotus crocophyllus
Galerina marginata
Gymnopus subsulphureus
Megacollybia rodmanii
Mycena galericulata
Panus conchatus
Pluteus petasatus
Rhodotus palmatus
Xeromphalina tenuipes
Cerioporus squamosus
Lentinus arcularius
Neofavolus alveolaris
Polyporus umbellatus
Auricularia americana
Ductifera pululahuana
Exidia glandulosa
Gymnosporangium juniperi-virginianae
Puccinia mariae-wilsoniae
Puccinia podophylli
Uromyces ari-tryphylli

Phylum Ascomycota

Aleuria aurantia
Dumontinia tuberosa
Galiella rufa
Helvella costifera
Hymenoschyphus fructigenus
Microstoma floccosum
Pachyella clypeata
Phylloscypha phyllogena
Sarcoscypha dudleyi
Sarcoscypha occidentalis
Urnula craterium
Disciotis venosa
Gyromitra brunnea
Gyromitra caroliniana
Gyromitra korfii
Morchella angusticeps
Morchella diminutiva
Morchella esculentoides
Morchella punctipes
Verpa conica