FUNGUS AMONGUS.

Late season fungal diseases are still abundant, from walnut anthracnose to tar spot of maple, and at least relative to tar spot, seem to be worse than usual in some areas, and often associated with a great deal of leaf scorch on affected Norway maples. We are also seeing a plethora of fleshy woodland fungi in woodlands now. Some of these fungi are plant pathogens, such as the fruiting body conks of the Dryad's saddle, indicating significant decay in the trees, while others are curiosities, often quite beautiful, and in some, but only some cases, edible. So, if September is here than it must be time for OSU's Plant Pathology 300 "Fleshy Woodland Fungi", a class starting September 24, for the last time in OSU's dying quarter-system. Here are a few teasers sent over the years to PP300 students.

*Chaos fungorum. That was the term Linnaeus in the mid-1700s gave to the frustratingly fractious world of fungi. Linnaeus loved order, joyfully classifying plants, animals - and even rocks. Fungi were not his favorites: microscopes were not as good or available as today, fungal life cycles were not well-understood, the germ theory of disease was over a hundred years away. Chaos was the name of the day.

Taxonomic disputes remain today as well. Fungi were booted out of the Plant Kingdom many decades ago. They were like plants relative to lack of locomotion and with their cell walls, but they lack a basic attribute of plants. Fungi are heterotrophs - not autotrophs such as plants that produce their food via photosynthesis from the raw ingredients of water, carbon dioxide and an energy source such as the sun. So, from a two-Kingdom world of Plants and Animals, our understanding evolved into a 5 kingdom world which included the Kingdom Fungi.

Taxonomic consensus now is moving toward many more Kingdoms, 29 in one proposal, and many familiar organisms are being reclassified into Kingdoms other than Fungi. All this is part of our continued attempt to improve our artificial estimate of natural systems, making classification more in line with Mother Nature, but we always must humbly acknowledge that Naturum expellas fuca, tamen usque recurrat.

*The class involves numerous field trips, so here are a few words on forays. In an essay in the May 2007 Smithsonian magazine, Kennedy Warne, writing about the 300th anniversary of the birth of Linnaeus (who gave us the Latin binomial system for organisms on Earth that we still make so much use of today) said this of the forays Linnaeus led in Uppsala, Sweden :

"What forays they must have been! Botanizing with Linnaeus would have been the equivalent of studying geometry with Euclid, or taking a writing class from Shakespeare. In keeping with Linnaeus' orderly disposition, the expeditions were organized with the precision of a military campaign, with designated note takers, specimen collectors, and bird shooters. A bugle would sound when rare species were found. At the end of the ramble - up to 12 hours during the Baltic summer months - the party would troop back to town, waving banners, blowing horns, and beating kettledrums. At the botanic garden a shout would go up, Vivat Linnaeus!" We may not have bugles, and we will not have Linnaeus, but we will have forays - and they will be fun.

*So, this time of year, start thinking mushrooms, and conks, and slime molds and… well fungi and related organisms do have cool names. Fleshy fungal names run the gamut: from "hated amanita" to the "admirable bolete", from angel's wings to dead man's fingers. Sometimes the fungus itself seems somewhat conflicted. Consider, for example the - elegant stinkhorn. One of the instructors' favorites is - wolf's milk slime (Lycogala epidendrum). Sounds dreadful and a bit unappetizing. One of the highlights of the course though, will be the mycological feasts through the quarter, featuring such delicacies as shiitake stir fry and mushroom pate a la Piel.

Many fungi have food allusions in their very names, though not all of these are truly edible. There is apricot jelly, fried-chicken fungus, and even the black-and-blue pairing of beefsteak polypore and blue-cheese polypore. For breakfasts in Wonderland, scrambled-egg slime, and for dessert - chocolate tube slime. Good both for the fungi Slippery Jack (Suillus luteus) and equally so for Slippery Jill (Suillus sublutens) if not for characters in the real world. Rest assured, though, the mantra of: "There are old mushroom hunters and bold mushroom hunters but no old bold mushroom hunters" will be heeded. We will go to great lengths to insure that the final exam will not truly be your last meal.

After this course you will never be known as the "dunce cap fungus" or even thought to be as ignorant as a "pig's ear gomphus". The place to be this Autumn is Fleshy Woodland Fungi, Plant Pathology 300. Or risk being known as a stinky squid/green slime/earth tongue/poison pie/ pigskin poison puffball!