Scientists at RBGV rely on a 219-year-old fungi specimen and book to improve our knowledge of fungi
Scientists at Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria have used a 219-year-old book and fungi specimen to identify Tremella saligna as a duplicate name of the fungus Propolis farinosa.
The detective work started when Dr Tom May, Principal Research Scientist (Mycology) discovered several tiny blue packets in the National Herbarium of Victoria containing fungi whose names corresponded to those in a book published in 1805 in Latin by Johannes Baptista von Albertini and Lewis David von Schweinitz called Conspectus fungorum in Lusatiae Superioris.
The book documents more than 1000 fungi from a region in Europe that now straddles eastern Germany and western Poland.
Working with scientists across the globe in North America and Germany, Dr May searched for definitive evidence of a connection between the book and the specimen.
Eventually, the research team tracked down a key document in an archive in Germany - a handwritten list created by Albertini around 1803, in conjunction with preparation of the book.
Dr Tom May, Royal Botanic Gardens VictoriaWe were thrilled to see that the names in Albertini’s list and on the specimens exactly matched.
Among the packets was one labelled Tremella saligna — one of around 300,000 specimens acquired by the National Herbarium of Victoria in 1883 from German Botanist and Pharmacist Otto Wilhelm Sonder. These specimens form a large percentage of the Herbarium’s Global Collection today and are still being databased given their sheer volume.
The specimen was databased in 2013, and then studied by Herbarium Research Scientist Dr Camille Truong, who was able to recover microscopic details of the spores.
In June this year, the team of scientists published a research paper assigning Tremella saligna as a ‘synonym’ of Propolis farinosa, meaning that Propolis farinosa is the correct name for this fungus.
Dr May said that Propolis farinosa is a small and easily overlooked fungus, however the discovery is significant as it has improved the naming and description of fungi, otherwise known as ‘taxonomy’.
Dr Tom May, Royal Botanic Gardens VictoriaThis is an important process of cleaning up lists of names to make sure the same species has not been named twice. It is akin to ensuring that a telephone book has the correct details, and the same person is not included under two different addresses.
“We are discovering new species of fungi every day, and only 10% are known to science. Improved taxonomy allows us to improve our understanding of fungi,” he said.
Chris Russell, Director and Chief Executive at Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, says that the improved naming and description of plants, algae and fungi benefits humans in a variety of ways.
Chris Russell, Royal Botanic Gardens VictoriaOur work on fungi really is pioneering. Improved taxonomy improves our ability to create new pharmaceuticals, improve biosecurity and create new crops.
The National Herbarium of Victoria comprises approximately 1,562,000 plant, algae and fungi specimens with the Global Collection comprising approximately 500,000 specimens.
Click here to read the paper: “Circumscribing Propolis farinosa (Fungi, Ascomycota) II: Typification of Tremella saligna, a synonym, based on a study of original material of Albertini & Schweinitz. Muelleria 42: 63–71”
Table 9 in Conspectus fungorum in Lusatiae Superioris (1805).
