Great paper out about bioluminescent fungi in the Amazon by Robert Blanchette

Contest winners! Find the 1st morel of the season contest at UMN Plant Pathology has 2 winners Nick Rajtar & Colin Peters who found the first ones to come out. Be on the lookout - morels are just beginning to emerge in Minnesota and the big ones are on the way!

Timber stains and decay in the forest pathology class lab today including red stain of box elder

Congratulations to Nick Rajtar, Colin Peters and Ryan Franke each of them was awarded a 2024 Minnesota Mycological Society Graduate Student Scholarship. Thanks to the MN Mycological Society for their ongoing great support for student research on fungi!

Entomopathogenic fungi can harm or kill insects, and in the case of #EmeraldAshBorer , may be the key to #biocontrol . Colin Peters and Robert Blanchette give the scoop!
✏️Carolyn Bernhardt, she/her
🤝 MN ENRTF
#EAB #mitppc #umnresearch UMN Plant Pathology CFANS
mitppc.umn.edu/news/entomopat…

Grad fellow Nisogaabokwe Melonee Montano and her father spoke with WUWM 89.7 FM about their relationships to land, water, and fire; Anishinaabe land management; and Nisogaabokwe's work as a traditional ecological knowledge outreach specialist UMN Forest Resources
cfans.umn.edu/news/managing-…

Enoki (Flammulina velutipes) presenting beautifully as we get our first whispers of snow in central Minnesota. This species loves the cold, and can even be found fruiting on warm days mid-winter!

A new paper just out and a very important one for me in a special issue honoring Prof. Jack Rogers legacy (WSU mycologist). Reporting extraordinary diversity of Xylaria in the Ecuadorean Amazon-these soft rot fungi are IMPORTANT decomposers in rainforests link.springer.com/article/10.118…

A magical moment in the woods from a couple of weeks ago - just think of all the energy that is stored within trees!!

Chicken of the Woods // Laetiporus sulphureus

#foraging #mycology #chickenofthewoods #cow

Robert Blanchette Nick Rajtar Benjamin Held Andrew Mann Davy DeKrey

The rains (and fall fungi) have arrived in Minnesota!

Grifola frondosa // Hen of the Woods // Maitake

#foraging #mycology #henofthewoods #maitake

Fungi are playing a vital role in Minnesota's Emerald Ash Borer crisis, as demonstrated in research from UMN-PLPA's own Robert Blanchette Andrew Mann Colin Peters cfans.umn.edu/news/fungi-eme… CFANS #foresthealth #planthealth

After the moon landing, these are popping up all over - Colin Peters with a giant Calvatia gigantea

Robert Blanchette's lab at CFANS is focused on developing novel tools to proactively detect & manage deadly, invasive plant pathogens before they can rip through MN forests, in hopes of preventing another Dutch elm disease-style outbreak. MN Invasive Terrestrial Plants & Pests Center mitppc.umn.edu/news/front-lin…

Downed spruce tree on campus that usually has Ganoderma fruiting now has Phaeolus schweinitzii (the Dyer's polypore). Photo taken 5 days ago compared to today shows a fast growing mushroom that is now attracting attention of all who walk by.

Well the chanterelles have flushed in central Minnesota! I came across a large patch of fresh fruiting bodies today, though it seems that the bugs are getting to them quickly…

Nearby I found this stand-alone pair of white chanterelles, a first time sighting for me!

New graduate student and new to twitter Colin Peters gets out into the field to see the great northern forests of Minnesota

What does pycinal fluid of pine-oak gall rust taste like? Students in the forest pathology field silviculture field class at the Cloquet Forestry Center and I do a taste test- tastes like a very sweet minty root beer. All agree this is a flavor that needs promotion!

And the winner of the UMN Plant Pathology contest to bring in the 1st morel is Colin Peters. Many of you living south of us have been finding morels for some time but the season is just beginning for us. Winner gets The Mushroom Cookbook

First morels of the season for me! Today near St. Paul, MN

It is graduate student appreciation week and let me be one of the first to give my appreciation to a group of superb grad students in my lab. UMN Plant Pathology has a long history of extraordinary students and the great students here now continue that tradition