“BLOODY plants! Always in the way.” That is not the sort of expostulation expected of a researcher from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. But Lee Davies is not a botanist, he is a mycologist—an expert in fungi—who, at home in London, helps curate Kew’s fungarium. And, although history and convenience mean the study of fungi is often lumped together with that of plants, Dr Davies is keen to point out that mushrooms and their kin have nothing in common with the vegetable kingdom beyond their sedentary way of life.
His sentiment was particularly understandable on this occasion. Being ankle deep in mud, on a narrow trail traversing a precipitous hillside that was sloping down who-knew-how-far-or-where, and then trying to collect a specimen hidden just out of reach behind a tangle of greenery, would fray anyone’s nerves. But the specimen was duly acquired, popped in a plastic bag, labelled and carried back to base camp for processing and identification.
Dr Davies and his compadres...Continue reading
Source: Science and technology https://ift.tt/2rPdAuZ
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