Quick Fungi ID Charts - revisited

[FungiJohn]

Hello all

I'm not sure if people can remember this brilliant idea I had

Message - Wild About Britain Pics

For 3 years I have been trying to get easy access to the A to Z images to create ID charts for each ... not easy

At the moment Stu has helped with:

Wild About Britain

but ideally we need it in scientific name only and single genus

Ideally we should be looking at images showing as many characteristics as possible and I suppose even microscopic images eventually.

What do you think? Can it help? Is it worth doing?

John

edit ... No, I don’t know how non amanita species got in there either … it was only a prototype

[flaxton]

John
I think it is a great idea but a HUGE amount of work. It would of course lead to arguments about wether it should be just scientific names and also mixed genus charts for "look alikes".

Mal

[fairplay]

I can't quite see what you are aiming for John as there is already the A-Z, do you want us to elaborate on those links with photos depicting more detail of the characteristics and maybe spore details

Or do you just want people to enter the scientific name where only a common name is provided.
I don't follow either where you say "......... and single genus"

Neil.

EDIT. I think John's gone to bed, don't blame him, think I will too !

[RobSutton]

I think it's a good idea but I think what goes in needs to be determined by who you think will be the target audience. As an aide memoir for fairly experienced fungophiles: Genus by Genus, latin names only, photos that show cap, gills and stipe perhaps plus microscopic features would seem a good combination. For less experienced perhaps a habitat based chart might be more productive: fungi on wood, fungi on dung, fungi of grassland, fungi of coniferous woodland etc. I'm sure people have seen them but something along the lines of the FSC fold out charts.

FSC Publications : Rocky shore lichens

[Ditiola]

I think the habitat based system is a good idea but not easy in practice. I am currently adding habitat info to all the photos in my photo ID collection of photo's, with the aim at sorting them into separate habitat folders. I am starting with the Ascomycetes as they are as a group they much more selective in habitat requirements. Therefore in the future if I find a fungus say on a dead Quercus I will first of all go to Quercus wood-dead, then deciduous wood-dead, then all dead wood. The main problem is that to be thorough most fungi photographs will need to be duplicated several times, and there will be a point where one has to decide at what point you stop entering fungi with many hosts into each host category. It’s a minefield, and probably one that’s not practical to complete completely satisfactory for any of the fungi groups, and almost impossible for some groups.

Peter

[FungiJohn]

Hello all

My original idea for this was something very simple that could be used to ‘compare’ species for the same genus OR similar fungi. An aide memoir as Rob suggested.

It was actually the FSC Lichen fold out chart that either Richard or Posch introduced me to at Clumber Park last autumn that re kindled my thoughts on this.

These would be totally separate from our A to Z and more of an additional resource by way of a series of A4 images. However, a fold out ID chart(s) like the FSC charts would be ideal!

Given the number and excellent quality of our own fungi images, I feel they would make a worthwhile contribution and certainly help many people.

John

[Leif]

Excellent idea. I must steal it ... They do say immitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

[FungiJohn]

Originally Posted by Leif

Excellent idea. I must steal it ... They do say immitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

I’m flattered … I think

[FungiJohn]

For those familiar with the excellent Fungi of Switzerland books I was thinking about a similar ‘mini’ format which showed the image plus microscopic details.

Well, that was one idea anyway. Certainly one idea I'm trying out in MS access. I got the idea from Leif's excellent website

John

[Leif]

Originally Posted by FungiJohn

For those familiar with the excellent Fungi of Switzerland books I was thinking about a similar ‘mini’ format which showed the image plus microscopic details.

Well, that was one idea anyway. Certainly one idea I'm trying out in MS access. I got the idea from Leif's excellent website

John

I'm flattered. I think.

Seriously, I think you might want to think about an automated method of generating the information in your guides. Doing it by hand is a lot of hard work, and each page will have the same format. Microsoft .NET programming tools are available in a cut down free version. Just a thought.