The art, mythology, and controversial science surrounding Ganoderma lucidum (Ling Chih) in China are described.

Discovered in the late 19th century, Bordeaux Mixture was the world's first commercially successful fungicide. Among its achievements was the control of potato blight, the disease which had so famously devastated Irish crops earlier in the century. Although from the mid-1930s onward it was largely superseded in European and North Americn agriculture by progressively more sophisticated and expensive organic fungicides, Bordeaux Mixture, a simple mixture of copper sulphate and lime, remains a popular weapon for gardeners (Fig 1) and poorer Third World farmers fighting a range of foliar diseases. Modern formulation has improved its usefulness, there has been a lack of evolution of fungal resistance towards it and, above all, it has remained relatively cheap.

Entomophthoralean fungi cause many of the epizootics in the world's arthropod populations. Most are obligate insect or mite pathogens and thus are not readily cultured (Pel et al, 2001). In contrast, almost all the common Conidiobolus and Basidiobolus species, widespread in litter and soils of the temperate regions, grow on simple media. Easily observed under the microscope, these necrotrophs or specialised saprotrophs of arthropods exemplify many aspects of entomophthoralean biology. They are strongly chitinolytic, proteolytic and lipolytic and they can colonise arthropod cadavers. The violent discharge of conidia so characteristic of entomophthoralean fungi is easily observed and studied in Conidiobolus spp. (Ingold, 1971). This ‘trick’ of shooting off conidia, presumably essential for contacting a passing animal as potential vector and eventual substrate, is also extraordinarily useful to a mycologist for experimentally manipulating these fungi. It allows escape from most other co-occurring microbiota, showering of experimental target arthropods (living and dead) and collection of successive generations of repetitional conidia (Waters & Callaghan, 1999). This last feature allows study of the intriguing alternatives to globose conidia. Such alternatives include, for a few species, capillioconidia able to adhere to nearby arthropods, (cf B. ranarum, Weber & Webster, 1998) and for some, actively discharged elongate conidia (ADEC). Most characteristically, in about 11 species, microconidia can form and discharge from the parent spore (Webster, 1980). These alternative conidial forms are easily missed and may form only from later generations of repetitional conidium development on non-nutritive agar media; particularly when water activity (aw) is slightly lowered by inclusion of sorbitol or glycerol (see Appendix).

It is well known that many fungi are host-specific, i.e. their fruiting is restricted to one host plant or a group of closely related hosts. An example is Hypoxylon fragiforme whose perithecial stromata are common on dead trunks and branches of beech, Fagus sylvatica (Fig 1), but are only occasionally found on other woody hosts. Mycelium of H. fragiforme is present mainly in the sapwood rather than the bark of branches of healthy beech trees, and this fungus has therefore been called a xylotropic endophyte (Chapela, 1989). Colonization is not extensive so long as the water content of infected host tissue remains high, but if branches are cut from living trees and allowed to dry, the mycelium extends rapidly (Chapela & Boddy, 1988a,b; Chapela, 1989).

Many an undergraduate biologist will remember the excitement/fear of using radio-labelled substrates (usually 14C) during carefully supervised laboratory practicals. They will also remember the precautions taken to avoid contact with the radioactive source and to account for all the materials used. The use of radiolabelled compounds (mainly 3H, 14C, 32P or 35S) is commonplace though carefully controlled, and the utilisation of such compounds for field experiments is severely restricted. A further limitation in ecological research is that the radioactive isotope of nitrogen (13N) has a half life of only a few minutes.

A new and highly unusual species of Lachnum Retz(ascomycetes, Hyaloscyphaceae) is described from decaying leaves of Deschampsia caespitosa (L) Beav. collected from Argyll, Scotland.

Endothiella sp. was found associated with witches' broom symptoms of Tibouchina granulosa growing in a stretch of Atlantic rain forest in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The fungus was the anamorph of Cryphonectria cubensis the eucalypt canker fungus. Host-range studies were performed involving 40 plant species belonging to 19 families and showed that C. cubensis has a wide potential host-range, concentrated on the Myrtales but including Persea americana (avocado) and Pouteria caimito. These are members respectively of the subclasses Magnoliidae and Dilleniidae, distantly related to plants of the subclass to which both eucalypt and T. granulosa belong (Rosidae). The finding of C. cubensis in balance with a population of a native species at a site isolated and distant from both eucalypt and clove plantations might be regarded as reinforcing the hypothesis of a Neotropical origin for the fungus as opposed to the hypothesis of the fungus being from Oceania and having cloves as its original host. The new alternative hypothesis(of separate origins from endemic hosts in the Neotropics, Africa and Oceania) should nevertheless be also considered.