Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Fungi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

Contents

[edit] WikiProject Fungi

The current coverage of fungi in Wikipedia is very poor; one reason for this, in my opinion, is the uncertainty over naming and classification (and the lack of English names). The German, Dutch and French Wikipedias are better. This project could improve matters a lot, especially if it establishes guidelines on the taxonomy, preferred names, whether to mention authors/authorities, the use of categories, etc. It is essential to remember that there are many alternative naming/classification possibilities, and I suppose Wikipedia must cover all the main ones. The model articles, such as Psilocybe, are useful too. Good luck! Strobilomyces 20:39, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

I should be able to lend a hand. While not formally a mycologist by any means, I have had quite a bit of amateur background in the field and have access to a reasonable diverse reference library on the topic. I hotfixed Inocybe from work with minimal access to sources in order to correct a terribly unencyclopediac entry, but I'll revise it with better documentation and a taxobox shortly. I'm not sure where we want to draw the line regarding inclusiveness, but I should be able to get up an article styled after Galerina on most of the significant North American genera in the next few weeks. Serpent's Choice 07:54, 18 July 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for your work on the Inocybe article and thanks in advance for the contributions you are planning on. The Galerina article is a good model. (I say with all due modesty, since I largely wrote it.) Another approach would be like the article I just wrote on Hygrophoraceae (it probably needs more fleshing out, but its a good start). Some articles of this type, covering the major mushroom families with basic descriptions of the major genera within them, followed by full articles on these genera once enough material has been written about them, is another way of breaking down this large task. (Of course, the concept of mushroom families is in a state of flux right now, but some pretty clearly defined clades are being established through multiple studies.) Peter G Werner 18:08, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Article Improvement Drive: Fungus

Imagine my surprise when I came across this:

I encourage anybody who's interested in this project to help out in working on the "Fungus" article this week. I'll certainly be doing so. Peter G Werner 02:01, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

To-do list for Wikipedia:WikiProject Fungi: edit  · history  · watch  · refresh
  • Week of July 17 – July 22, 2006 – Help out on Article Improvement Drive: Fungus.
  • Fill in Fungus stubs. Where called for, merge them with other articles.
  • Make a list of articles of mycological subjects that are needed and are not present on Wikipedia at all, then begin writing the articles.
    • In particluar, wikipedia is weak on brief articles explaining mycological terminology.
    • Biographies on notable mycologists like Alexander H. Smith and Roger Heim are also needed.
  • A category page for mycologist stubs should be created, and the stubs fleshed out.

[edit] Identification

Can anyone identify any of these fungi? The following were all taken in Mexico, details are listed. I know the chances are rather slim considering lack of depth of field, good angle, bad resolution, or degraded state of the fruiting body on most of these, but I thought maybe a few could be pinned down to at least a genus or something. Thanks! --NoahElhardt 00:50, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

Mexico, Mexico, at 2700 m. altitude.

Mexico, Mexico, at 2700 m. altitude. Diameter 24 cm.

north of Ixtlan in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. Same mushroom as Fungus_ne4.jpg.

north of Ixtlan in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. Same mushroom as Fungus_ne3.JPG.

north of Ixtlan in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico.

north of Ixtlan in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico.

north of Ixtlan in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico.

in or near Reserva de la Biosfera El Cielo in Tamaulipas, Mexico.

in or near Reserva de la Biosfera El Cielo in Tamaulipas, Mexico.

in or near Reserva de la Biosfera El Cielo in Tamaulipas, Mexico.

Not sure this one is a fungus, growing east of Oaxaca,_Oaxaca, Mexico.
Well, even though Wikipedia isn't the right kind of forum for this kind of thing (there are LiveJournal communities where this is more appropriate), I'll take a shot at some ID down to genus level – 1 & 5: Cortinarius (or perhaps Rozites), 2: Boletus, 3 & 4: Russula, 7: Amanita or Macrolepiota or Chlorophyllum, 8: Hericium, 10: Polyporus, 11: Tremella or Dacrymyces. Taking a "journey to Ixtlan" to look for mushrooms I see. ; ) Peter G Werner 03:15, 5 August 2006 (UTC)
Thank you! Well, Wikipedia may not be meant exactly for this purpose, but I uploaded (and took) the images in the hopes that they might help illustrate the appropriate articles. Once they are identified, I can apply them thusly.
Not quite a journey to see mushrooms... more a journey to see plants (Pinguicula in particular), but I do share a fond spot for mushrooms and couldn't resist snapping a few on the way. :) Thanks for the help. --NoahElhardt 05:39, 5 August 2006 (UTC)
For future reference the Mushroom Observer Website is designed to help people identify mushrooms as well as record observations and images about mushrooms. Nathan Wilson 05:49, 16 December 2006 (UTC)
Noah takes a large variety of excellent photographs. I would hesitate to ask him to go anywhere else to get them identified. KP Botany 19:22, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
I'm not sure what you mean. As Peter mentioned, Wikipedia is not the right forum for identifying unknowns. The Mushroom Observer Website is very much in the same spirit as Wikipedia (open content licenses, open source etc.) and is exactly intended for the purpose of helping people identify unknowns. Admittedly I'm biased since I'm the primary architect, but as such, I can also tell you that I am currently working on connecting the system with Wikipedia so that the two systems can hopefully cross-fertilize. I expect that some contributors to Mushroom Observer will contribute to Wikipedia, and I hope the site can provide a good source for images for future Wikipedia articles. At the moment the images can't be automatically used since I only require that people put their images under a non-commercial CC license. However, I have plans to support more varieties of licenses and am hoping to make the default compatible with Wikipedia. The website already gives you an easy way to send email to the person who added the image to the site to request permission to use the images for other purposes. Nathan Wilson 04:07, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
I agree. Wikipedia talk pages are for discussion of article edits, Wikipedia projects, etc. They aren't discussion boards in the regular sense. On the other hand Mushroom Observer is an excellent resource and I'd encourage people to use it. Peter G Werner 22:41, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Improvements with Layout of Mushroom pages

We should set up a style that we recommend for mushrooms pages. Right now they do not seem to follow any layout. Any ideas and/or comments?RSIferd 00:44, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

Is there any style guide that makes recommendations for layout of Wikipedia articles in general? That would be a good place to start. Peter G Werner 02:59, 5 August 2006 (UTC)
Yes, I have been reading the wikipedia guidlines and they have helped some. I think that it should be in a format like
Lead Section this is the section that will introduce the topic. It should be an overview of the Genus/species. If there is ::something below (aside from "see also" and below that) that can be said in just a sentence, then try to include it here rather than ::creating it's own section.
Identification
If there is something special about identification that is a good paragraph, add it here. If there are several subtopics like
Microscopic
Interesting identification ideas for things like spores and hyphae
Macroscopic
For things like gills, spore print, substrate, color, ect.
Other
if there's anything else
List of Species
This is obviously for genus articles only (I have added rough geographic loactions and common names to species lists on genus articles. Could also add toxicity icon (used in mycomorphboxes) too)Cas Liber 01:45, 19 October 2006 (UTC)
Toxicology
Anything notable about toxicology including treatment methods if poisonis
See Also
other related wikipedia articles
Further Reading
if there is a good book/article on topic
References
Any referance material
External Links
Other sites with helpful information
If there is something else notable about the mushroom, like history or whatever then it should then have it's own section too. But I think that if we try to reformat the articles like this when we can it would greatly increase readability.
Does this sound good? Any changes or other ideas... I am ganna try to make a subpasge for this because it seems like it may take up a lot of room, lol.RSIferd 14:28, 5 August 2006 (UTC)
I tried to set Russula up in that format. Check it out and see how ya'll like it.71.79.241.58 18:10, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ascomycota taxonomy

Um, yikes.

The taxobox doesn't even seem to know how we're going to view the taxonomy. Neither of the two options in the box is the one I am familiar with, either-- (somewhat abbreviated for the purpose of discussion).

Class Ascomycetes
Subclasses: Arthoniomycetidae, Chaetothyriomycetidae, Dothideomycetidae, Erysiphomycetidae, Eurotiomycetidae, Laboulbeniomycetidae, Lecanoromycetidae, Leotiomycetidae (Order Heliotales [Family Ascocorticiaceae, Bulgariaceae, Cudoniaceae, Cyttariaceae, Dermateaceae, Geoglossaceae, Heliotaceae, Hemiphacidiaceae, Hyaloscyphaceae, Leotiaceae, Loramycetaceae, Phacidiaceae, Rustroemiaceae, Sclerotiniaceae, Vibrisseaceae]), Meliomycetidae, Sordariomycetidae, Spathulosporomycetidae, Pezizomycetidae (Order Pezizales [Family Ascobolaceae, Ascodesmidaceae, Carbomycetaceae, Discinaceae, Glaziellaceae, Helvellaceae, Karstenellaceae, Morchellaceae, Pezizaceae, Pyrenemataceae, Rhizinaceae, Sarcoscyphaceae, Sarcosomataceae, Terfeziaceae, Tuberaceae])
Class Neolectomycetes
Class Pneumocystidomycetes
Class Saccharomycetes
Class Schizosaccharomycetes
Class Taphrinomycetes

Has this been supplanted somewhere since 2001? Serpent's Choice 04:06, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

On the level of cladistics, yes – there was a major molecular phylogeny of the Ascomycetes published by Lutzoni last year. I'm not sure if it resulted in new names being published, though. Peter G Werner 02:59, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Likewise, with the basidiomycetes, we are currently splitting the jellies off at the class level, while Ainsworth and Bisby maintained the single class Basidiomycetes and differentiated at the subclass level with Tremellomycetidae for the jellies and kin and Agaricomycetidae for, well, everything else. Systema Naturae (admittedly flawed in places) seems to (mostly) agree with both of the above arrangements, but I'm not willing to be that bold without some consensus. It is a big change. Serpent's Choice 04:23, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

You mean Systema Naturae 2000 and not Linneus' Systema Naturae, correct? The latter is way out of date, to put it mildly. Peter G Werner 03:03, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Featured Article Collaborations?

A couple of articles have the prerequisites to become Featured Articles, I reckon. How's about Amanita muscaria and Agaricus bisporus for starters? What do others think? Cas Liber 00:54, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

The Button mushroom article needs a lot of additional material and re-editing before its ready. The Amanita muscaria article is in better shape, but still needs a little rewriting and fact checking, and more importantly, needs citation of source material before its ready for featured article status. At the risk of self-promoting, the Psilocybe article is also in good shape, but still needs some additional material, and again lots of citations which are presently lacking. Peter G Werner 02:56, 21 September 2006 (UTC)
Self-promoting is OK. Had more of a look around and got into some collaborating on Amanita muscaria and a tiny bit on Button mushroom. OK here is the beginnings of a list of articles which have the potential to be featured...Feel free to move up or down as seen fitCas Liber 06:23, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Very rough

[edit] Rough

[edit] Getting there...(due or recently had Peer Review)

[edit] Good articles (has been designated WP:GA)

[edit] Featured Article Candidates

none

[edit] Featured Articles

none

[edit] Addendum Jan 07=

Righty-ho, try this......Fungi Collaboration —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Casliber (talk • contribs) 03:13, 10 January 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Project directory

Hello. The WikiProject Council has recently updated the Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Directory. This new directory includes a variety of categories and subcategories which will, with luck, potentially draw new members to the projects who are interested in those specific subjects. Please review the directory and make any changes to the entries for your project that you see fit. There is also a directory of portals, at User:B2T2/Portal, listing all the existing portals. Feel free to add any of them to the portals or comments section of your entries in the directory. The three columns regarding assessment, peer review, and collaboration are included in the directory for both the use of the projects themselves and for that of others. Having such departments will allow a project to more quickly and easily identify its most important articles and its articles in greatest need of improvement. If you have not already done so, please consider whether your project would benefit from having departments which deal in these matters. It is my hope that all the changes to the directory can be finished by the first of next month. Please feel free to make any changes you see fit to the entries for your project before then. If you should have any questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you. B2T2 23:44, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wildlife Barnstar

There is currently a barnstar proposal at Wikipedia:Barnstar and award proposals/New Proposals#Wildlife Barnstar for a barnstar which would be available for use for this project. Please feel free to visit the page and make any comments you see fit. Badbilltucker 15:26, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Mushroom Observer site

I'm also interested in contributing, but in a slightly different way. In particular I would like to use Wikipedia in coordination with the Mushroom Observer website I have been working on. I believe the fundamental principles of the two sites are compatible, but, as I understand it, the current contents of Mushroom Observer are too close to basic research for Wikipedia. However, there is a need in the site for species definitions as well as some sort of glossary for mycological terms. I'm hoping that I can leverage Wikipedia to provide this information by encouraging the folks working on Mushroom Observer to contribute to Wikipedia. Is this a reasonable approach? Is this being done by any other websites? Nathan Wilson 05:49, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

  • I think field identification by experienced Mycologists that is chronicled on the Mushroom Observer website can subsequently be used as a valid reference in Wikipedia, documented, accurate and published scientific observation of natural history does not fall in the realm of original research. So as long as the reference is made by someone who is acting independently of the original source provider, that is you can not contribute an article to Wikipedia on a mushroom you have done all the work on, however someone else reading your work who is experienced enough to know the accuracy of your work may. --Matt 10:23, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia Day Awards

Hello, all. It was initially my hope to try to have this done as part of Esperanza's proposal for an appreciation week to end on Wikipedia Day, January 15. However, several people have once again proposed the entirety of Esperanza for deletion, so that might not work. It was the intention of the Appreciation Week proposal to set aside a given time when the various individuals who have made significant, valuable contributions to the encyclopedia would be recognized and honored. I believe that, with some effort, this could still be done. My proposal is to, with luck, try to organize the various WikiProjects and other entities of wikipedia to take part in a larger celebrartion of its contributors to take place in January, probably beginning January 15, 2007. I have created yet another new subpage for myself (a weakness of mine, I'm afraid) at User talk:Badbilltucker/Appreciation Week where I would greatly appreciate any indications from the members of this project as to whether and how they might be willing and/or able to assist in recognizing the contributions of our editors. Thank you for your attention. Badbilltucker 17:15, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Fungal article headings

Currently plants articles are generally found under scientific names whereas many bird and mammal pages are found under common names, with the corresponding Wikiprojects attempting to standardise that way.

Several fungi articles are known by common names already. Amanita phalloides is under Death cap and Destroying angel covers Amanita virosa and A. bisporiga.

I feel fungi are a special case distinct from plants as there is a much higher percentage of species complexes and similar taxa which are indistinguishable without the use of a microscope, thus the use of a common name for a group of species.

Does anyone else doing pages on fungi have a strong opinion on this? cheers Cas Liber 22:29, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

I agree with the use of common names for species complexes, so long as that common name is well established. So "Destroying angel" is appropriate for the above-mentioned group of Amanita (which includes at least a half-dozen species). "Candy cap" for the article I'm working on for the Lactarius camphoratus / fragilis / rubidus group. Another group that probably should have a single article is "Porcini", which properly covers Boletus edulis, Boletus aereus, Boletus pinophilus and several other related species. However, when a common name clearly is synonymous with a single species, it would probably be best to stick with the convention of using scientific names for the article title, hence Death cap should be moved to Amanita phalloides. "Chanterelle" now redirects to Cantharellus and I think that should be kept – the genus Cantharellus as currently understood contains mostly what are commonly called "chanterelles". (Note that "yellow-foots" are now well-understood to be a Craterellus, so I'll make that change to both articles shortly.) Peter G Werner 18:55, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
That always bugged me when I was a kid (Yellowfoots in Cantharellus) and now cladistics has made me feel better, sticking them with the horn of plenty...Cas Liber 19:46, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
I agree – when cladistics and clearly observable morphology are congruous, that makes a strong case for reclassification. Peter G Werner 19:53, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
Should I split lethal webcaps into two articles, Cortinarius rubellus and Cortinarius orellanus? I've considered doing it for a while, but hesitated as they'd share a fair amount of content. mic 13:08, 7 February 2007 (UTC)
I know what Peter'll say :) - but if you have some material which differentiates tehm from each other then a good idea - if identical I'd say leave it. cheers Cas Liber 13:23, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Lists of species of fungi in a particular genus

Lists seem to be common on wikipedia, and fungi is one area where I guess some thought has to go into any particular list to enrich its value. This is why I have put on common names, edibility icons and approximate geographical regions to give readers an idea a better overview of a particular genus. I think that some lists are the only way that link a genus (say, Amanita) to various member species. If the lists were delete wholesale then I think the way of navigation is tricky. Writing paragraphs would also turn into a textual list. It is true that some genera have so many species as to bring into question, for instance, the value of a mega-list of the 2000 Cortinarius species.

Possible options:

1. No lists - all species of a particular genus only in nice, informative paragraphs on the genus page.

2. Lists of selected species only - no redlinks. No putting on species until a fungus has its own individual species page.

3. Species lists but only where a species has a little extra info added (ediblity/common name(s)/geography). Redlinks OK as they may promote individual articles.

4. Lists contain all possible species.

I am opening this up so we can get some consensus and maybe post some more guidelines on the Project page. cheers Cas Liber 10:27, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

  • I am definitely in favor of option 4 - red links serve as a reminder of what articles need to be done in the future, and a comprehensive list gives an immediate sense of the size of a genus, in a way that a number (i.e. 150 species) does not. Debivort 18:15, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
  • Thanks for starting this discussion, since the species list thing has been a pet peeve of mine. Basically, species lists as they now exist are far larger than any kind of meaningful list of notable species in a genus. On the other hand, they are inevitably do not include every named species in a given genus (which typically runs into the hundreds or even thousands of species). Hence, they end up being a highly random list of species, copies off of a website, out of a field guide, or whatever species a given editor happens to have heard of. These is not a good, selective criteria for inclusion, to put it mildly.

    Note also that Wikipedia does have established List guidelines and species lists should conform to these. Additionally, there's active discussion of proposed additions to the guidelines, and these discussions might serve as a good reference for the discussion here.

    As for each of the specific proposals:
Option 1: Disagree, I think lists have their place as references to other articles on species within a particular genus. There are plenty of cases where it may not be appropriate to include discussion in the genus article of every species that has its own article (Psilocybe comes to mind), but direction to those articles is called for.
Option 2: Agree, with modification: Species that are highly notable, but for whatever reason lack an existing article should be included on such a list, even if it creates a redlink. This redlink would presumably be temporary in a case like that.
Option 3: Mildly Disagree, lacks good selection criteria. With some selection criteria, this idea might potentially be useful.
Option 4: Strongly Disagree! In fact, I think this option is sheer insanity, at least if you any kind of understanding of just how many named species are found in most fungal genera – typically hundreds, sometimes thousands. Most of these species will be highly obscure, often highly local in distribution, some only known from a single collection. In other words, not likely to be the subject of an article – ever. So what you end up with is a huge list of mostly redinks, and as Cas Liber mentioned, in the case of Cortinarius, something like 2000+ redlinks. I don't know how anybody could see such an undertaking as remotely useful.
One thing that hasn't been discussed is a policy about having species lists within articles vs stand-alone lists. I would say, if its beneath a certain number (say 5 or 10 species), keep it in the article, but if it runs beyond that, make it a stand-alone list. I've noticed that some editors seem to have a strategy of putting large lists at the end of articles so that they can fit in illustrations. This is not a good criterion for including something in an article, IMO.
Peter G Werner 19:50, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
Dang, I forgot to add that (about size of lists and whether they should or can be on a separate page). Sounds good to me (moving after about 10 or so, >5 makes for a pretty tiny list page) Cas Liber 20:04, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
Ten or more goes into a stand-alone list sounds good. Peter G Werner 20:17, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
I should also mention, a useful concept to keep in mind is that of signal-to-noise ratio. Ideally, a good list should be all "signal", easily getting the reader to a related article they want to get to. Articles that are large lists of redlinks, on the other hand, are largely "noise". Peter G Werner 20:27, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Criteria for including species in articles

Related to the above discussion of lists, there needs to be some criterion for which species to actually write about is sections titled "Notable species" or some variation on this. For many articles, it seems like the selection of species is quite random, and quite often driven by what images the editor has in their personal collection or can find on Wikicommons. (Lactarius: A selection of well-known European species is a particularly egregious example.) I think this kind of random selection of species to discuss is something that adds to the sloppiness of some of the articles on fungal genera. Some criterion for inclusion is called for – species described as "notable" or "well-known" species really should be exactly that. (And not just what was coming up in your yard when you happen to have your digital camera handy. :) Peter G Werner 20:11, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Hmmm..I certainly think that looking forward there are species which stand out as ones to prioritize but deciding what it 'notable' and what isn't can be really subjective. Everyone has different interests and I am mindful that a photo speaks a thousand words. Wikipedia is not a book limited by production costs and as it grows so less and less 'notable' things can be written about. Personally I would love and article on every Bolete and Amanita and skip most of the rest, but then I got this Hygrophoraceae book and learnt about rare hygrocybes occurring in bush pockets near the centre of Sydney, named by a man who taught me chemistry at medical school...
PS: Australia is so dry that any sizeable fungus coming up is interesting!
I have loved learning about plants, fungi and birds which makes the ordinary fascinating. If I take a photo of some average, lets say, Lactarius and write a page on it I think it adds to the overall value, than if, say, only Curry-, Saffron- and a couple of other Milk-caps score articles. Just about anything can be interestin to the enthusiast and I don't think non-enthusiasts are going to be browsing Lactarius pages anyway.


My take on rules about what taxa to include would be to prioritize:
  • Deadly species
  • Edible species
  • Confusing species
  • Photogenic species
as a start, and not to delete any list or taxon but work to improve or correct it. If you feel a generic coverage is out-of-kilter because someone has written an article on Amanita lanei and not A. phalloides then write one on A phalloides.
cheers Cas Liber 20:50, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
I would say deadly species, definitely. Edible species – that depends thousands of species are technically edible, but hardly anybody actually eats them. I'd say edible mushrooms that are widely sought after in at least one culture or geographic locality, particularly if the mushroom has commercial importance. I'd add hallucinogenic mushrooms that meet this criterion to the priority list. "Confusing" species – you mean, inedible or toxic mushrooms that can be mistaken for sought-after edible or hallucinogenic mushrooms, sure. "Photogenic" – practically any mushroom can be photogenic if the photo is well-composed. A criterion I'd add is if a species is particularly common and widespread over much of the world – for example, Stropharia aurantiaca, which one will find in huge abundance in woodchip beds from Australia, to Japan, to Europe, to North America.

The species included now under Lactarius, for the most part, are just so random. I'd say the notable species, ones which are highly sought after and even commercially important, such as the "candy caps", as well as Lactarius deliciosus as well as L. sangifluus and allies, which are widely gathered in Europe (and particularly popular in Catalonia). The "peppery" group of Lactarius is important, as a normally toxic mushroom, as well as for the fact that in Russia, these species are actually consumed (they're pickled in a process very much making kimchee – apparently, this renders them safe). But L. quietus, L. decipiens, and L. chrysorrheus? What makes these so important that out of 400 species these should be chosen for the article? Why these rather than say, the Lactarius alnicola that comes up in my backyard? Wikipedia does have a guideline called "no undue weight". Its a rule that applies not only to the neutrality of articles, but also to the amount of coverage you give to any aspect of the subject:
"Undue weight applies to more than just viewpoints. Just as giving undue weight to a viewpoint is not neutral, so is giving undue weight to other verifiable and sourced statements. An article should not give undue weight to any aspects of the subject, but should strive to treat each aspect with a weight appropriate to its significance to the subject. Note that undue weight can be given in several ways, including, but not limited to, depth of detail, quantity of text, prominence of placement, and juxtaposition of statements"
As far as I'm concerned, choosing one set of relatively obscure species over any of 400 others does give those species undue importance in the context of the article.
Peter G Werner 22:00, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
Hmmm...If one wants to take an inclusive view of the term 'undue weight' then wikipedia is full of this - compare coverage of dinosaurs to fungi, or various pop culture issues, or astronomy which is very well represented. If you look at what is in the Featured Article list. This is what happens when there are 1000 volunteers editing what they want etc. I think this has to be take in context; timewise the lists are incomplete and will probably be a lot more complete than they are now. Books all the time choose various species to profile and illustrate - obviously most are picked because of their importance but many are random -just flick through any book on fungi, garden plants or any other host of naturalist topics. I think the information conveyed by a pic of a particular species is increased manifold by having an accompanying article. The milk caps listed are only the ones I could remember offhand (come to think of it, I must add L alnicola too...). Have a look at list of NGC objects in Astronomy - how different is that to Lactarius species? I planned to get edibility icons on all spp on lists to make them more informative. Anyway, the only easy way to get the importnat ones done is to make a list I suppose to divert attention to them, or otherwise push for a collaboration. Cas Liber 05:29, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Consensus on how long an article should be before splitting into subheadings

Anyone want to hazard a guess on this one? A couple of shorter articles the text of which I'd split into subheadings have had them recently removed. question is, how long should an article be before splitting into subheadings? cheers Cas Liber 20:31, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Places on image captions

I feel that having locations on any article with a biological entity is pretty important as it helps place the image in context. Does anyone else have a strong opinion either way? I worte this after reverting the image caption in the txobox of Boletus edulis. cheers Cas Liber 20:48, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Is it time to set up an official monthly fungus collaboration

Given the lack of FAs, is it time to at least flag a collaboration formally modelled on the following:

Wikipedia:WikiProject_Dinosaurs/Dinosaur_collaboration

It is quite easy to set up cheers Cas Liber 21:04, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Guideline: Avoid local bias

We don't yet have a style guide for WP Fungi, but a guideline I would definitely include is Avoid local bias. Here's a good example from an earlier edit of Sparassis:

"It generally grows on old Scots pine tree roots or tree stumps, with which it has a parasitic relationship. It can be found during autumn and late summer in North America and Europe."

Two things wrong with that – does it only parsitize Scots pine? That would surely limit its geographical range. A little reading about where S. crispa and S. radiata grow from sources outside of just one area would reveal that they grow with pines and spruces of all types. The statement about "late summer and autumn" reflect the peak mushroom season in temperate climates – Mediterranean climates have their peak mushroom season in late autumn and winter. Tropical and Southern Hemisphere mushroom seasons are different still.

Its always important when writing articles to keep in mind that Wikipedia is international in scope and that what's typical in your corner of the world may not be the same everywhere. Peter G Werner 01:06, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] A userbox anyone?

This user is a member of WikiProject Fungi.


What do we think? The stylised bolete is the one used on the italian Wikiproject Fungi Cas Liber 20:08, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Looks great! I'm adding it to my page. Peter G Werner 21:20, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
Actually, two improvements are needed – 1) somehow get rid of the text reading "noinclude", 2) the title of the template should be changed from "WikiProject Fungi userbox" to "user WikiProject Fungi" to be consistent with other userboxes. (done)Peter G Werner 21:25, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Button mushroom proposed move (on talk page)

Dear all, I proposed a move to Cultivated mushroom however given the numerous names possibly Agaricus bisporus is a better bet....Cas Liber 09:39, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fungus Taxobox Collage

I have created this collage for the taxobox of the fungus page. Apparently no one visits the fungus talk page anymore. Image:Fungus collage.jpg Werothegreat 20:14, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

If anyone would like to comment on it, or rant about it, or say "yes, please, put that in," please do so. I would greatly appreciate it. Werothegreat 20:16, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

The question is, whether it looks smaller like this. The widest I've seen a taxobox I can think of is about 22opx, so lets try...

Image:Fungus collage.jpg

Hmm - looks OK to me. Cas Liber 20:20, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Thinking of the individual photos, the bread is a teeny bit indistinct. Would be good to find one of those classic oranges or lemon with half covered in a classic green/white mould (Dang! I just threw one out last week....) Cas Liber 20:22, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
When the collage is small, the chytrid is hard to see and the sporangium in the bottom center looks like a seedling. I think the collage needs pieces that will still be readily recognizable, even when the photos are quite small. Peter G Werner 22:16, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
It looks fine to me. I've seen plenty of taxoboxes wider than 220px, so I don't think that's a problem. An interested user could always click on the picture to see it in more detail, or read the (hopefully detailed) caption which would accompany it. --Stemonitis 22:28, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
Ultimately I'm happy fi you stick it on and have a play with it later. The other thing is maybe a collage on Agaricales (could include an Agaricus, Amanita, Lycoperdon and Fistulina hepatica.....and Boletales with a few boletes, Paxillus, Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca..... Cas Liber 23:06, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Alright, here goes nothing. I'm sticking it in the taxobox. Drumroll, please... Werothegreat 23:09, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Article assessment

I've added article assessment to the {{WikiProject Fungi}} template, which helps to show the quality of WP:FUNGI articles on Wikipedia. If anyone has time it would be good for people to assess the articles covered by the scope of this project. Thanks. ◄§ĉҺɑʀκs► 11:51, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

I've assessed some articles and the classes have come through OK but their Importance is not on the graph. Are we supposed to do that manually? Cas Liber 09:10, 12 January 2007 (UTC)
You need to wait for the next Mathbot run which occurs daily at around 3:00 am UTC. The table should then be automatically updated. See Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Using the bot for more details. You can also manually run the bot here to update the list. I just ran it and the table has been updated. ◄§ĉҺɑʀκs► 09:28, 12 January 2007 (UTC)
Aha -cool. Thanks for the grid box thingy Cas Liber 12:38, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sporocarp and related articles

There's been a bunch of low-level and scattered discussion as to what to do with the articles fruiting body, sporocarp, basidiocarp, and ascocarp. I have a comprehensive plan for these articles. Please have a look at it and discuss at Talk:Sporocarp. Peter G Werner 04:50, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, I've done the reorganization, as well as some expansion. Check out Sporocarp (fungi), Basidiocarp, and Ascocarp. The latter two are in much better shape then "Sporocarp (fungi)", though even that has good basic information. All could use at least a little bit of expansion.
Also, after all that reorganization, I notice that the article Mushroom is kind of a mish-mash of different contributions and not well-integrated with the rest of the fruiting body articles or any other topics covered by this project. It needs a lot of work, starting with the introduction (which should note that there is no exact definition of the word "mushroom".) Peter G Werner 00:01, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
Like a line of dominoes really - a collossal rewrite of a whole bunch of articles....Cas Liber 06:04, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Suggestion: divide up Category: Basidiomycetes into subcategories

Discussion here. Peter G Werner 21:03, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia:Peer review

I've begun submitting the GA-class articles to Wikipedia:Peer review, with the aim of bringing them up to A-class articles. I'm submitting them one at a time, so that I can more effectively respond to suggestions for changes to the article. (I'm not sure if any of the GA-class articles except for "Yeast" are long enough or broad enough to be Feature Articles, but they can still be made into top-notch A-class articles, in any event.) Peter G Werner 21:15, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Also, I've added a list for these to the main page for this project. Peter G Werner 21:30, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Saffron article

I just had a look at today's feature article, "History of saffron", then checked out the main article on "Saffron", which had been a feature article back in March. Its a truly excellent article, and I think an exemplar of how to cover the topic of an economically/ethnobotanically important plant or fungus. The article is strong on the biological, chemical, historical, agricultural, and economic aspects, including using breakout articles where necessary. I'd like to eventually get the "Psilocybe", "Amanita muscaria", "Agaricus bisporus", and "Tuber (genus)" articles into better shape along the lines of the "Saffron" article. Peter G Werner 02:32, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Agree - great article. I can visualise Amanita muscaria easily, well actually all of them in a simialr pattern. Will bookmark it. Cas Liber 03:45, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Microformat

Please be aware of the proposed Species microformat, particularly in relation to taxoboxes. Comments welcome on the wiki at that link. Andy Mabbett 15:40, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Conditionally edible fungi

I think the option "conditionally edible" should be put in the {{mycomorphbox}}. E.g. Amanita rubescens is marked as edible or choice now. Conditionally edible would be more appropriate according to description. --Eleassar my talk 10:05, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Tricky as some term all fungi conditionally edible as the y believe none should be eaten raw. An icon used in fungi text books was a mushroom in brackets to indicate edible when cooked. Cas Liber 12:20, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
It might be good to have a "with caution" or "conditional" option that one could put alongside the existing edible or choice options. But I agree, you really could apply that to any wild mushroom. As for Amanita rubescens and Amanita novinupta, they are indeed regarded by many (including myself) as choice edibles, but only when cooked and with due concern for distinguishing them from poisonous Amanita. Peter G Werner 17:45, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
Yes, I can agree with this. Could someone create an image for "conditional"? --Eleassar my talk 13:21, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

I have to ask - Peter, how do Blushers taste? are they worth it? cheers Cas Liber 07:57, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fungus Page needs more basics

I feel that there should be some section of the fungus page that talks about the basic anatomy of fungi, talking about hyphae and mycelia, and coencytics and all that fun stuff. Werothegreat 14:59, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

True, and that's just for starters. The "Fungus" article needs a ton of work. Hopefully at some point we can get enough people working on it at once to make a dent in it. Peter G Werner 09:35, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

I mean, I would get in there and do it myself, but it is an important article, and I have a feeling that if I just barged in and started editing things, there would be much more of an uproar than say, me editing my pet Lessoniaceae project. So, instead, I will present ideas.

  • How about one section, titled "Fungal Morphology", with something like this:
Though fungi are part of the opisthokont clade, all phyla except for the chytrids have lost their posterier flagella. Fungi are unusual among the eukaryotes in having a cell wall of chitin. All fungi are made up of many thin thread-like structures called hyphae. These hyphae can be one of two types: septate, or coenocytic. Septate hyphae have "walls" between their cells, called septa, though these septa have holes that allow cytoplasm, organelles, and sometimes nuclei to pass through. Coenocytic hyphae have no such marked divisions between cells. Coenocytic hyphae are essentially multinucleate supercells. Parasitic fungi have special structures on their hyphae called haustoria, which penetrate directly into a host organism's cells, allowing nutrients to be taken by the fungus. All of a fungus's hyphae form a structure called the mycelium. In mushroom forming fungi, the mycelium is normally underground. In molds, the mycelium forms directly on the food source. The only fungi that do not form hyphae or mycleia are yeasts, which are unicellular.
Fungi, unlike animals and vascualar plants, do not spend the majority of their life cycle in a diploid condition. When a spore begins to grow into a mycelium, the organism is haploid. The haploid mycelium may or may not produce haploid spores asexually. When one haploid organism encounters another, through growth of the mycelium, since fungi are not motile, the two may merge, in a process called plasmogamy. The fungi then enter a heterokaryotic, or multinucleate stage. Usually, one nucleus from one parent fungus will pair off with one nucleus from the other parent. Some fungi spend most of their life cycle in this stage. At a given time, the paired off nuclei will merge, in a process called karyogamy, producing a diploid nucleus. This will normally happen in a seperate reproductive structure, in basidiomycetes and ascomycetes, the mushroom. The diploid nucleus will then undergo meiosis to produce haploid nuclei, which are then released as spores to start the cycle once again.

Something like that. Werothegreat 20:34, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Classification consensus

Peter (or any other mycologist for that matter) it would be good to get some direction on some other taxonomic issues in terms of consensus. This then bears on some article pages.

First up - how strong is the consensus on sinking Amanitaceae into Pluteaceae?

will list some others when I find them Cas Liber 07:56, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

There's nothing published on this yet, but an upcoming paper which proposes a new classification scheme based on some pretty solid molecular work maintains the names Amanitaceae, Pluteaceae, and Pleurotaceae. They represent three strongly supported clades within a larger Pluteoid clade. Peter G Werner 09:45, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] How do you join?

How do you join WikiProject Fungi? Do you just say your in and your in or is it more complicated. Well, anyway I'd like to join, what do I do? Dixonsej I created Horse mushroom a while back and I don't know much but I'd like to help.

Just add your name in the list of participants. You don't have to join to help out, but if you do want to, then that's all there is to it. --Stemonitis 19:24, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Thanks

[edit] DYK Proposal: Amanita velosa

I just wrote a fairly detailed article on Amanita velosa (just in time for its season here in California) and have proposed it as a Did You Know? candidate. Peter G Werner 09:49, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

Great; there's such a lack of articles that there's plnety of scope for new ones and hence DYK noms cheers, Casliber | talk | contribs 19:04, 28 February 2007 (UTC)
An active DYK as of now. Peter G Werner 11:06, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Proposal for reorginization of Psychedelic mushroom, Psilocybe, and Amanita muscaria

Basically, I propose to split up Psychedelic mushroom and part of Psilocybe, and merge the psilocybin mushroom-related sections into Psilocybin mushroom (Psilocybin would remain a separate article) and the Amanita muscaria-related info into Amanita muscaria. Psychedelic mushroom would be a disambiguation page.

Discuss at Talk:Psychedelic mushroom. Peter G Werner 05:33, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Deuteromycota

I left some thoughts here on how to proceed with purging Deuteromycota and Deuteromycetes: Talk:Deuteromycota.

Chime in if you have some good ideas. Nemetona 05:25, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../w/i/k/Wikipedia_talk%7EWikiProject_Fungi_0d53.html"