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MYCOLOGIST NEWS The newsletter of the British Mycological Society 2013 (4) Edited by Prof. Pieter van West and Dr Anpu Varghese 2014 BMS Council BMS Council and Committee Members 2014 President Dr Geoff Robson Vice-President Prof. Richard Fortey President Elect Prof Nick Read Treasurer Prof. Geoff M Gadd Secretary Position vacant Publications Officer Dr. Pieter van West International Initiatives Adviser Prof. Anthony J.Whalley Fungal Biology Research Committee representatives: Dr Alex Brand; Prof Nick Read Fungal Education and Outreach Committee: Dr .Kay Yeoman; Ali Ashby Field Mycology and Conservation: Dr. Stuart Skeates, Mr Justin Smith Fungal Biology Research Committee Prof. Nick Read (Chair) retiring 31.12.2016 Dr. Pieter van West retiring 31.12.2014 Dr. Sue Crosthwaite retiring 31.12 2014 Prof. Mick Tuite retiring 31.12.2014 Dr. Alex Brand retiring 31.12.2015 Prof Gero Steinberg retiring 31.12.2016 Dr Geoff Robson retiring 31.12.2015 Fungal Education and Outreach Committee Dr. Kay Yeoman (Chair & Higher Education ) retiring 31.12.2016 Dr. Ali Ashby (Primary School Advisor) retiring 31.12.2014 Prof. Lynne Boddy (Media Relations) retiring 31.12.2014 Alan Williams (Secondary School Advisor) retiring 31.12.2014 Dr Elaine Bignell (Public Outreach) retiring 31.12.2015 Dr Bruce Langridge (Public Outreach) retiring 31.12.2016 Ninela Ivanova (Public Outreach) retiring 31.12.2016 Beverley Rhodes will be co-opted for Public Outreach Field Mycology and Conservation Committee Dr. Stuart Skeates (Chair, website) retiring 31.12.2014 Mr Justin Smith retiring 31.12.2015 Mr David Harries (network coordinator) retiring 31.12.2015 Mrs Dinah Griffin retiring 31.12.2014 Ms Carol Hobart retiring 31.12.2016 Mr Peter Smith retiring 31.12.2016 Dr Martyn Ainsworth and Paul Kirk will be co-opted onto FMCC Contacts BMS Administrator President: [email protected] British Mycological Society Treasurer: [email protected] City View House Mycologist News: [email protected] Union Street BMS Administrator: [email protected] Manchester M12 4JD BMS Membership: [email protected] Tel: +44(0) 161 277 7638 / 7639 Fax: +44(0) 161 277 7634 2 From the Office Hello All, Christmas is nearly here and 2014 is just around Contents the corner. Looking back on 2013 it’s been a busy year for BMS activities with forays at home and abroad, as well as the countrywide UK 2013 Honorary Member: Ted Gange p4 Fungus Day. Early reports indicate that the UK Fungus Day was a huge success and therefore we plan to repeat the event and build on this 2012 Benefactor’s Medal: Stuart Skeates p5 success in 2014. Watch out in January for a special edition of the Mycologist Newsletter Small Grant Report: Alex Lichius p6 showcasing 2013’s UK Fungus Day events, hopefully this will encourage even more activities with the 2014 event. Small Grant Report: Lucia Vincenot p7 The membership renewal process for 2014 will soon be underway, and the good news decided at BMS Bursary Report: Jessica Dunn p9 the recent BMS AGM in September, is that membership and journal fees will remain the MiSAC Annual Competition Report p10 same as 2013. We will email and post renewal forms out towards the end of December to be returned and processed at the start of 2014. West Weald Recording Network p11 Please keep us informed of any change in postal or email address, especially those of you who BMS 2014 Foray & Workshop receive the newsletter or journals in hard copy p12 format. Programme Best wishes for the coming season and for the coming year. Copy deadline for next issue: 28th February 2014 Merry Christmas, joyeux Noël, ¡Feliz Navidad, and a very Happy New Year to all. The BMS Office Team Norman Porrett Sophie Embleton Administrator BMS Office Field Mycology Assistant 3 2013 Honorary member: Ted Gange see now, but at least I might be able to do so in the future, when some books might be found”. Then his mother gave him Mushrooms and Toadstools by Dr John Ramsbottom but, while useful, only showed how much there was to learn. Not until a local book shop got him Common British Fungi by Wakefield & Dennis could much progress in identification be made. Another ecological observation that Ted made early on was that, unlike the flowering plants, it was virtually impossible to predict when and where one might find a given species of fungus. Thus, the idea was born of recording exactly when and where species were seen, to try and help others who might be interested in finding Ted has been interested in many aspects of fungi. In the early 1950s, Ted met a retired natural history since when at an early age schoolmaster, Jim Hindley, who was also (1930s) he found some shiny reddish-brown interested in fungi. Jim had an advantage in that cylindrical objects in the soil when his father dug he was a close friend of Dr Derek Reid, who potatoes. They could wriggle their pointed ends, taught him how to identify many species and but were otherwise immoveable. No one could where to find them. tell him what they were and so he kept a few at home. Most dried up and failed to move, but one Ted and Jim hatched a plan to map every lasted long enough to eventually split open, species in Wiltshire, but soon realised that they revealing a large brown moth that was emerging. did not have enough records of any to make it This event sparked an interest in entomology and worthwhile. Thus, attention quickly focused on a desire to find and raise more of these insects. recording every species found and the ‘Gange That interest is still with him, but it brought with it database’ of records was born. Every record a need to learn the identities of flowering plants, was hand written on a 5” x 3” card and filed away in order to find the correct food plants for his in a tin box. butterfly and moth larvae. Over the next 50 years, aided by many friends in In the early 1940s, Ted followed his father into the Natural History Society (of which he is the family firm and became a stonemason by president), Ted amassed over 64,000 records. profession. This job entailed long periods Then, in 2009 an unfortunate accident curtailed outside, enabling him to continue his hobbies of his avid collecting. He tripped in the garden and entomology and botany. However, while peering hit his head on concrete, almost breaking his closely at plants or insects in churchyards and neck. Almost completely paralysed, he spent the cemeteries, he noticed often large groups of next 5 months in the spinal unit of Salisbury fungi present too, and it was not long before Hospital. The team performed a remarkable these became the main focus of his interest. reconstruction job, but he lost his sense of Although not a professional ecologist, Ted soon balance, and can now only manage a few steps realised that the more one looks, the more with help. species one finds – a good example of the species accumulation curve. Before the accident, Ted’s son Alan, who works at Royal Holloway, University of London, realised Over the next few years, Ted visited all of the the extent of the resource that Ted had compiled. burial grounds within a 30 km radius of Salisbury Inspired by the study of flowering in British plants (where the firm was based). This was just about by Alastair Fitter and his father, Richard, he the time that colour film became available and an decided to see if Ted’s original questions of old glass plate camera was converted to use it. where and when fungi fruit could be addressed His reasoning was simple, but rather far-sighted, by studying the temporal and spatial patterns that saying that “I may not be able to identify what I were present in the data. However, the data had 4 to be computerised. Ted bought a computer, Boddy, L. (2007). Rapid and recent changes in taught himself how to use Excel (with some help fungal fruiting patterns. Science, 316, 71-71. from Alan!) and typed the 64,000 records into the package, copying all the information from Mattock, G., Gange, A.C. & Gange, E.G. (2007). each card. Spring fungi are fruiting earlier. British Wildlife, 18, 267-272. Since 2005, Alan has been conducting analyses of the data set, the original paper of which was Gange, A.C., Gange, E.G., Mohammad, A.B. & published in Science. Analyses are still ongoing Boddy, L. (2011). Host shifts in fungi caused by and the data have now been incorporated into climate change? Fungal Ecology, 4, 184-190. the FRDBI. To date, five manuscripts and one PhD thesis (by Aqilah Mohammad) have been Gange, A.C., Gange. E.G., Mohammad, A.B. & published and more manuscripts are planned. Boddy, L. (2012). Fungal host shifts: bias or By taking an almost Darwinian, curiosity-driven biology? Fungal Ecology 5, 647-650. approach to natural history, Ted has provided a lasting legacy for mycologists and given us a great example of how useful ‘citizen science’ can Gange, A.C., Mohammad, A.B., Damialis, A. & be. He well deserves the award of Honorary Gange. E.G. (2013). Mushroom phenological Membership of the British Mycological Society. changes: A role for resource availability? Proceedings of the National Academy of Publications: Gange, A.C., Gange, E.G., Sparks, T.H. & Sciences USA 110, E333-334. Stuart Skeates - Benefactor’s Medal 2012 Stuart has always been interested in the natural world – as a child, he wanted to be “Gerald Durrell” when he grew up.
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  • Psycho- Mycological Studies from Ancient Sacrament to of Amanita

    Psycho- Mycological Studies from Ancient Sacrament to of Amanita

    Psycho- Mycological Studies Of Amanita From Ancient Sacrament To ModernI,. Phobia, the United States, and describe the subjective effects of A manita intoxication. Finally, I will discuss the phobia, The fly-agaric, Amanita muscaria (Fr. ex L.) so frequently manifested by members of the psychedelic Hooker, is certainly one of the most poorly understood subculture, which surrounds modern recreational use of of the known psychoactive plants. Despite the fact that A manita species. there exists a record of more than a century of chemical and toxicological studies of this mushroom, its HISTORY OF AMANITA MUSCARIA chemistry has not been fully delineated. Moreover, the During the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth chemical literature concerning A. muscaria is fraught centuries, there were a number of reports by explorers with errors and misleading data. and anthropologists of the ritual use of A. muscaria in Much recent work has been devoted to the history Siberia. This use was attributed to shamans of the of the use of this mushroom. Because of this work, and Koryak tribe of the Kamchatka penn insula, the the attention it has drawn to the psychotropic properties Irtysh-Ostyak tribe of northern Siberia and others of A. muscaria, this mushroom has come, during recent (Dittmar & Patkanov 1968). Use of the fly-agaric as a years, to be widely used as a recreational drug in the recreational drug by the Koryak, Yukagir, Chukchi and United States. However, persons who routinely use Kamchadal tribes of Siberia was also commonly reported psilocybin-containing mu~hrooms (Psilocybe, PanaeoIus, (Steller et al. 1968). As are all mushrooms in the genus, Conocybe, Stropbaria spp.) as recreational drugs often A.