Monday, December 26, 2022

New DNA sequencing results in new Latin names for Wood Ear, Ringless Honey and Velvet Shank,Enoki mushrooms

As some of you may already know, the fungi kingdom has been the target of an historic effort by the scientific community to analyze DNA and properly categorize fungi. Before DNA analysis, identification was based solely on appearance, behaviors and microscopic features. 

Things are changing dramatically as we learn more and more about fungus. Many mushrooms that look and act very similar -- which we had previously assumed meant they were related -- are actually not closely related at all. And may, in fact, be related to other fungus that look nothing like each other. 

As a result, I have updated my blog posts to reflect the current proper Latin/scientific names for the mushrooms I have featured on my site. 

NOTHING about identification or toxicity has changed. ONLY Latin NAMES.