Bill Sheehan’s vision of bringing sequencing to dedicated addicts of the world of fungi taxonomy will have lasting impacts. FUNDIS’ influence on the South Sound Mushroom Club (SSMC) near Puget Sound in Washington has been powerful, not just to our small group, but also to the scientific community -- especially for fungal taxonomy across the world.

The smell of Russian leather! That is how the rather plain looking white “Hygrocybe” russocoriaceus is described and how it is supposed to be identified in the field. Indeed, the name russocoriaceus is Latin for Russian leather.

This Blog is based on 14 months of email discussions following the discovery in Washington State of a new North American record for a species tentatively identified as the European Hygrocybe phaeococcinea discovered by Jen Chandler and pursued by Eric Chandler and Steve Ness (members of the Puget Sound Hygrophoraceae Project) of the North American Mycoflora Project (NAMP).