U.S. National Fungus Collections

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

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.

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]

External links

National Fungus Collections at the US Department of Agriculture.

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g U.S. National Fungus Collections Archived 2005-12-27 at the Wayback Machine, USDA (last visited Aug. 22, 2012).
^ ^a ^b Amy Y. Rossman, "Flora W. Patterson: The First Woman Mycologist at the USDA" (Reviewed feature article), ASP.net (last visited August 22, 2012).

[USDA-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g U.S. National Fungus Collections Archived 2005-12-27 at the Wayback Machine, USDA (last visited Aug. 22, 2012).

[rossman-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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