REVSYS: Taxonomic Revision in the Russulaceae, Fungi

University Of Wyoming, Laramie WY

Investigators

Abstract

Species in the genera Lactarius and Russula are closely related genera of mushrooms found in symbiotic association with the roots of forest trees, an association known as mycorrhizal. They are important dietary elements for insects and larger animals and many species are harvested worldwide for human consumption and as an important commodity. The number of named species worldwide is large, approximately 2000 in Russula and 1200 in Lactarius, and it is a taxonomically troublesome group for those doing studies of forestry, soil communities, biodiversity, or ethnobotany. The primary goals of the proposed research by Dr. Steven Miller at the University of Wyoming and his colleagues are to make it easier to identify these mushrooms and to document the species that occur in critical tropical forests. To do so, they will expand an existing website to include a web-based identification key with links to a digital image library, provide a centralized location where a reference set of digital images of taxa and characters can be directly observed and compared, create a web-based searchable database of validly published names and citations, and expand the on-line literature database. They will also survey and identify the Russula and Lactarius mushrooms found in the Dominican Republic and Belize, Malaysia, and the Cameroons of Africa, areas little explored yet for fungal diversity. This research is possible because it represents a strong international collaboration between experts from the United States, Europe and Australia. The importance of this research is that it will result in new and more accessible knowledge on identification of these mushrooms, which in turn will provide new avenues of exploration for forestry, ecology, biodiversity and ethnobotany. This will result in greater knowledge and understanding of these important mushrooms in both tropical and temperate forests before massive deforestation results in their likely extinction.