NYMS Member Jan Mun Unveils Another Myco-Remediation Project
September 9, 2013For those of you whom are familiar with NAMA and NEMF Forays, you have probably had the good fortune to meet Dr. Rod Tulloss, the Amanita expert from New Jersey.
He is seeking the help of mushroom seekers in obtaining well collected and documented collections of Amanita citrina and Amanita citrina f. lavendula (a lavender tinted A. citrina). The season for this autumn mushroom is upon us.
A highly detailed body of instructions follows.
Hello, friends.
THE TIME HAS COME FOR THE 2013 “CITRINA” PROJECT TO GET UNDER WAY
[Please share this email with friends and clubs throughout eastern North America in areas where forests occur that contain oak and/or coniferous trees. We already know that the range of material of interest extends from boreal forest in Canada to the Sierra Madre Oriental in Mexico.]
I am getting the first reports for “Amanita citrina” and “Amanita citrina f. lavendula” from the eastern states and Provinces of the US and Canada. Montane regions may already have been producing for a while.
I wanted to remind you that we are in what we hope is the BIG YEAR for collecting “citrina-like” material to support the study of this group in North America. This group has been found to include an infraspecific hybrid swarm—a biological species with a large number of different nrITS sequences, some pairs of which, based on current knowledge, differ more greatly than do nrITS sequences of some pairs of distinct species within section Validae.
We are seeking well-documented, well-dried material that field guides would place in “Amanita citrina” or “Amanita citrina f. lavendula.” If you find material that seems “citrina-like,” but has a “virgate” cap (appears to have radial fibrils embedded in the cap cuticle), we are interested in such material as well. We are interested in material with variously colored partial veils as well: white, yellowish, gray, or gray-brown. The color of the partial veil may vary with age or not.
Material does NOT have to have a lavender tint to be of interest. We are casting a broad net because we are discovering that, so far as we know, all the “citrina-like” material of North America will turn lavender under appropriate conditions.
By “well-documented” we mean that you have good, diagnostically valuable digital images and that you have recorded the dimensions of the fruiting body according to the measurement methods in the attached workbook. If you know how to use www.mushroomobserver.org, it would be wonderful if your data for each separate collection were posted on that site. If you use MO (mushroomobserver) for your data, place the MO observation number corresponding to collection in or on the packet containing the relevant dried material when you send that material to us. This is VERY IMPORTANT.
As an alternative you can email the images and data to us. If the latter is your choice, please some sort of UNIQUE mark or number on each dried collection. Use the same UNIQUE mark or number to indicate which data goes with a given collection and (very important) which photographs go with a given collection. This is VERY IMPORTANT.
IF ANY COLLECTION CONTAINS AT LEAST ONE FRUITING BODY THAT EXHIBITS SOME LAVENDER OR AMETHYST COLORING ANYWHERE ON THE FRUITING BODY PLEASE RECORD THIS FACT IN WRITING AND BY A PHOTOGRAPH.
AVOIDING DUPLICATION:
Please take a look at the main webpages on which we are keeping track of material that has been included in the “lavendula” grouping according to our existing evidence. On each of these pages we ask that you go to the technical tab for the page and take particular note of states and counties from which material has been collected that has been associated.
Below, we will list these pages with special page-by-page instructions. We know that more than one taxon of the “lavendula” grouping may occur at a single site, and that all three may occur within a single county.
http://www.amanitaceae.org?Amanita+sp-lavendula-01
http://www.amanitaceae.org?Amanita+sp-lavendula-02
http://www.amanitaceae.org?Amanita+sp-lavendula-03
VERY IMPORTANT: These pages include the data for three genetically separated groups of collections. These pages will tell you the list of counties from which we ALREADY HAVE MATERIAL IDENTIFIED AS ONE OR THE OTHER OF THE THREE TAXA by genetic means. When we have multiple taxa (two or three) from a given county, please do not send more material from that county. When we have a single collection of a single taxon from a given county or no collection from a given county, we are interested in having collections from up to three sites within that county. Collections made from possibly distinct mycelia within a given park or forest are to be counted as being at distinct locations. Specimens that appear to group by size of bulb, color of cap or overall size of fruiting body should also be treated separately and each such grouping should be considered as determining a distinct location NO MATTER WHAT THE PROXIMITY OF THE PRECISE COLLECTING SITES MAY BE IN SUCH A CASE.
http://www.amanitaceae.org?Amanita+citrina+f.+lavendula
VERY IMPORTANT: The material on this page falls into two groups: (a) the material originally collected and/or reviewed by Coker and appearing in the original description of citrina f. lavendula and (b) subsequent material previously judged to belong to the taxon BUT WHICH HAS NOT PRODUCED DNA despite our best attempts. Locations of type (b) may be recollected unless this conflicts with collecting rules for sp-lavendula0x pages, above. With regard to collections of type (a), which are listed in magenta type, we very much desire new collections from the same localities (often associated with campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). Since many of the locations are within Orange County, NC, we would like any individual collecting in that county to send collections from a maximum of three sites. Collections made from possibly distinct mycelia within a given park or forest are to be counted as being at distinct locations. Specimens that appear to group by size of bulb or color of cap should also be treated separately and each such grouping should be considered as determining a distinct location NO MATTER WHAT THE PROXIMITY OF THE PRECISE COLLECTING SITES MAY BE IN SUCH A CASE.
http://www.amanitaceae.org?Amanita brunnescens f. straminea
VERY IMPORTANT: The material on this page falls into two groups: (a) the material originally collected and/or reviewed by Smith and Gilbert and appearing in the original description of brunnescens f. straminea and (b) subsequent material previously judged to belong to the taxon but unavailable for sequencing or otherwise unsequenced. Locations of type (b) may be recollected unless this conflicts with collecting rules for sp-lavendula0x pages, above. With regard to collections of type (a), which are listed in magenta type, we very much desire new collections from the type locality (MICHIGAN—Washtenaw Co. – Pinckney, George Reserve). Collections made from possibly distinct mycelia within a given park or forest are to be counted as being at distinct locations. Specimens that appear to group by size of bulb or color of cap should also be treated separately and each such grouping should be considered as determining a distinct location NO MATTER WHAT THE PROXIMITY OF THE PRECISE COLLECTING SITES MAY BE IN SUCH A CASE.
I want to send you sincere thanks in advance for any help you can provide this very interesting project during the remainder of the 2013 collecting season. These thanks come from Dr. Karen Hughes (discoverer of the strange hybrid taxon) and the director of the large genetic component of the project. In addition thanks come from the Roosevelt team as whole … Cristina Rodriguez Caycedo, Naomi Goldman, Nina Burghardt, and myself.
Again, please pass this email on to your friends, colleagues, and students, and to mushroom clubs with which you have contact.
Good luck collecting.
Very best,
Rod Tulloss
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Dr. R. E. Tulloss
ret@eticomm.net [<= Share DropBox folders to this email only, please]
retamanita@comcast.net
Herbarium Amanitarum Rooseveltensis
P. O. Box 57, Roosevelt, NJ 08555-0057, USA