The Genera of Hyphomycetes by Keith Seifert and others

The Genera of Hyphomycetes

I recently borrowed a copy of The Genera of Hyphomycetes in the McGrath Library of the St. Paul Campus of the University of Minnesota. This massive tomb of nearly 1,000 pages took over twenty years to complete. There are close to 1,000 line drawings of hyphomycetes classified by spore type.  I ended up using the book to help identify a fungal organism growing on a window ledge.

I had the opportunity to meet the principal author, Keith Seifert, where he was one of several lecturers at a fungal identification workshop in Ottawa, Canada many years ago. At that time his specialty was the genus Fusarium spp. The class was excellent, as was the city and the dining.  During the conference we were able to attend a traveling Renoir portrait exhibit at the local museum. Each painting included historical information about the subject(s).  Of all the paintings in the exhibit, I found the large portrait of Monet painting in his garden to be the most intriguing.

The plants in our gardens survive because mycologists working as plant pathologists quietly do work that reveals the complex often multi-host ecology of these fungal organisms. Medical mycologist work on human disease prevention. In health and safety, we poke around the edges of mycology trying to our best to keep people alive, buildings from rotting, and research on other organisms free from contamination. I very much appreciate the work these authors put into this book to help all of us who search around the edges.

Gentle teasing of the Author Keith Seifert by P. W. Crous and R. A. Samson 2 min.

Importance of Hyphomycete taxonomy - Keith Seifert 17 minutes.