U.S. National Fungus Collections

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The National Fungus Collections of the United States is the "world's largest herbarium of dried fungus specimens". [1] It is housed within the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The collection was established in 1869 from a core of fungus collections transferred from the Smithsonian Institution to the USDA. [1] Frank Lamson-Scribner (1885-1891) and Franklin S. Earle (1891-1896) were the first two directors, followed by Flora Wambaugh Patterson in 1896. Patterson vastly increased the size of the collection from approximately 19,000 reference specimens to almost 115,000. [2]

Patterson and other mycologists at the collection during Patterson's tenure, including Vera K. Charles, identified numerous commercially threatening fungi, including the bubble disease of mushrooms (1909), the potato wart disease ( Synchytrium endobioticum ), and chestnut blight. [1] These and other invasive diseases led to the passage of the Plant Quarantine Act of 1912. [1] [2]

These scientists were part of a wave of government-funded research into agriculture and disease. Vera Charles also worked on fungal pathogens of insects. [1] The National Fungus Collection also hired a number of other scientists all of whom did significant work on economically important crops. These included Anna E. Jenkins, hired in 1912, who became the "foremost authority" on spot-anthracnose fungi. Edith K. Cash, hired in 1913, investigated discomycetes (cup fungi) and William W. Diehl (hired in 1917) wrote extensively on Balansia which causes sterility in grass plants. [1]

After Patterson's retirement, James R. Weir ran the collection for four years; his work at the collection ultimately led to use of Neurospora as a model organism for genetic research. [1]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 U.S. National Fungus Collections Archived 2005-12-27 at the Wayback Machine , USDA (last visited Aug. 22, 2012).
  2. 1 2 Amy Y. Rossman, "Flora W. Patterson: The First Woman Mycologist at the USDA" (Reviewed feature article), ASP.net (last visited August 22, 2012).

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