Herbarium

I’ve started my own small herbarium.  A herbarium is a collection of preserved plants of fungi.  They are usually dried and mounted on a sheet but they can also be stored in a liquid preservative.  I recently came across the term “holotype” in Daston and Galison’s book called Objectivity.

“Objectivity did make inroads into other areas of botanical practice, such as the introduction of the “type method” in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth centuries in order to stabilize nomenclature.  At the level  of species, the type method fixed the name to an individual specimen, called the “holotype,” usually the first found by the discoverer or “author” of the new species.  This specimen need not be (and often is not) typical of the species it represents, but it is the court of last appeal for all future questions about the definition of the species, as its official name-bearer.  Holotypes are labelled with great care, specifically labeled and stored at the major herbaria of the world, to which botanists must travel to inspect the specimen firsthand.  Each one is unique as as unique as a Vermeer or a Cezanne, and, at least to the botanist almost as valuable.” (p.110,111)

It’s unlikely that I have collected any holotypes on my foray to Vancouver Island but it wouldn’t be impossible.  There are so many unidentified species that it is possible find many mushrooms that are unknown.  The question is how would I know if it was a unidentified or even a holotype.  It seems that much of this is determined by DNA testing now. Which makes me all the more curious about the variety of lab tests and how they structure what it is possible to know and possible more importantly to visualize.

Yes to Yeast: November 1, 2009

Yes to Yeast was organized by the VMS as part of their 30th anniversary events and programs.  Over the course of the day a small group of us attended a tour of the Granville Brewery and the Artisan Sake Maker, Masa Shiroki.  The making (and tasting) of Sake was the most exciting part of the day for me.  Sake is primarily made from rice which is fermented using a microorganism called koji and yeast.  Shiroki orders his koji from Japan.  It is sent in a vial and can be used for sake making for a period of time and then more freshly cultured koji needs to be ordered.

Koji is steamed rice that has koji mould spores cultivated onto it.  The latin name for the mould is Aspergillus Oryzae an asexual ascomycetous fungus that has been used for centuries in the production of soy sauce, miso and sake.  The mould produces enzymes that break down the starch in the rice into sugar that can be fermented by the yeast cells, which in turn give off carbon dioxide and alcohol.  Koji is critical to the taste and quality of the sake.

Shiroki’s workshop is well set up for producing sake in a small space.  He has a small lab for testing the level of alcohol and acidity throughout the fermentation process.  He invited each of us to look into the fermentation tank  and smell the rice mash.  It was amazingly sweet smelling- like apples or pears.  Eventually the sake is distilled by cooling it.  The sediment falls to the bottom of the cooling tank.  The sake is not filtered though.  Instead different type of sake are produced, some with more sediment, than others.

Pacific Spirit Park Foray: October 31, 2009

I joined Terry Taylor for a foray into Pacific Spirit Park at UBC.  I felt less like a raw beginner and more like one of the group which made me more inquisitive.  Terry explained that it is getting late in the season and that some fungi only comes out in colder weather.  As we tromped through the forest we came across Carbon Antlers, Red-Belt conks, Sulphur Mushrooms and Jelly fungi.

As the group was comprised of people with a more specific interest in fungi, Terry discussed mycology in greater depth and detail.  When someone asked him to identify a Mycena mushroom he pointed out the difficulty of identifying specific species and the debates taxonomists have when determining categories.  This is where things become quite subjective — which characteristics to place emphasis upon and which to diminish?  It is interesting to note how these categories and classifications shift and change continually.  The kingdom of Fungi was originally relegated to a category termed “Chaos” by the Swedish Botanist Linnaeus because specimens displayed both plant and animal characteristics.  A separate kingdom of “Fungus”did not come until much later.  Fungi is now recognized as being closer to animals than plants.   Due to recent DNA studies the taxonomy of the Fungi is in a state of constant flux again.  These current phylogenetic analyses often overturn classifications based on older and sometimes less discriminative methods based on morphological features.

From taxonomy to economy… apparently  research into fungus is also driven by economic factors.  Fungus such as the Red-Belt Conk are heavily studied because they cause brown rot in confers.  This fungus plays an important ecological role in breaking down wood into soil.   This saprophyte is however in competition with the lumber industry because it grows on recently cut wood.  The concerns of ecology and industry play out in laboratories through funding and grants.

Terry points out a number of sulphur mushrooms growing on some logs. These are part of  a study at UBC into anti-TB mushrooms.  TB is becoming increasingly resistant to current drug treatments.  This research is focussed on whether compounds in certain mushrooms might inhibit the growth of TB. More information about the research can be found here.

http://www.vanmyco.com/Documents/Fight%20TB%20With%20Mushrooms.pdf

This walk provided a greater sense of the social context of mycology.  The interrelations of fungi and humans continually reveals its complexity.

Vancouver Mycological Society 30th Annual Mushroom Show: October 25, 2009

I attended the Mushroom show at the Van Dusen Botanical Gardens in Vancouver.  As I approached the entrance I was greeted with a live cooking demonstration and a purveyor of mushroom spawn for cultivation.  Inside a room was set up to display wooden trays of mushrooms grouped by their classification.  Groupings of mushrooms were  identified  as edible, poisonous, or worthless by paper tags clipped to wooden close pins.  People crowded around the tables handling, smelling and photographing the mushrooms.  Animated discussions in dfferent languages surrounded the tables.

If I were to display the people in attendance on little wooden trays, my identification tags might read “collector,” “gourmet,” and  “admirer.”  In thinking of the collectors, I am reminded by two older men with eastern european accents discussing this rather ordinary looking white mushroom in a glass jar.  The collector of the mushroom found it and two others, which he left with the VMS to be identified.  The next day only one mushroom remained. He kept shaking the mushroom around in the jar- a prize that had been found and captured by him.  The gourmet were clamoring around the cooking demonstration taking in the aroma of the Matsutake’s as they were being cooked in a light cream sauce.  Using a toothpick they stabbed and savoured the flavour of tiny pieces of mushroom caps and stems.  The admirers walked along hunched over the tables trying to get the perfect photograph of the unique mushrooms forms and colours.  At a separate table a woman demonstrated how to create spore prints for identification and aesthetic enjoyment of the wispy circular shapes comprised of millions of spores.

I purchased an identification chart of medicinal mushrooms and then headed for a lecture on “Mushroom Madness.” Duane Sept gave a brief talk on mushrooms that can be found in the local area.  Part way through the talk I noticed that I was beginning to pick up some common and Latin names for different species. It’s interesting how these classifications crowd in on other thoughts.  When I think of classification, I am reminded of grade seven biology where we were tested regularly on taxonomy.  The lab was set up with 2 or 3 jarred specimens at each lab station.  We were given a few minutes at each station to write down the classification and then time was called and we had to rotate to the next station.  Floating snakes, frogs and worms were suspended in time for the purpose of our learning.  The pedagogical function of these specimens intrigue me.  They serve to sort and categorize the living world while somehow removing humans from that very world.  In contrast the mushroom specimens collected by hobbyists serve multiple functions aside from the laboratory context.  These specimens allow people to relate to the mushrooms as food, as aesthetic objects and as rare prizes.