Botany Photo of the Day

Eight years....I recently joined a Master Naturalist group here in Virginia and training to be certified. The world of science is so different from my world.

Lovely shape -- reminds me of a fairy skirt, covered with a layer of lace.

And there was a lovely little lilac-coloured striped mushroom that I stumbled across in the previous years' pages, but can't find it now.

I often find these little mushrooms quite beautiful. Thanks.

I first met shaggy manes in Alaska. Now I'm in Oregon, but they're right outside my office building. I just have to get to them before someone else does! My husband and I made a detour on our way home last night just to pick them. Yummy!

A comment building on the first post:
That it took 8 years to publish the new findings, is not an example of "science", but more a failure of science -- i.e., when scientists are too closed-minded to accept evidence that refutes current beliefs or paradigms. But I suppose that's human. And that fact that the reclassifications eventually were made is an example of how science progresses.

Wonderful to see a mushroom on the Photo of the Day again.
One of my favorite munchable ones too.

So... the graduate student who finally brought the classification into the 20th century didn't have a name. How odd.

Mary Ann, I wouldn't be so hasty at claiming a "failure in science." Though one gene separates one artificially created group into four different groups of organisms, that does not always mean that they should be split into separate genera. Taxonomic names are an artificial method of organizing and understanding how organisms relate to one another evolutionarily. It is not always so easy to combine older systematic nomenclature with newer phylogenetic evidence.

It so happens I wrote a blog review of this subject while in grad school! To read more about autodeliquesnce, check out the article in the Cornell Mushroom Blog (we have video!)

Christian, I get your point, but what I was actually commenting on was this part:
"The proposal ... was met with such outrage that it was not published until 8 years later" --- particularly the "outrage" and the "not published" parts.

In other words, I'm not commenting on the ultimate decision (i.e. I'm not arguing the botany, I'm not qualified to do that), but rather I'm commenting on the quality of the response to new information.

P.S. -- Christian, I see how you could take it that way, re-reading my earlier post. I didn't express my intended point very well.

tis also known as the shaggy mane

and after the comments above the lawyers wig
is a jolly good name me thinks

@Island Jim: John S Hopple Jr