Staphylotrichum coccosporum

I studied for my doctoral degree at Iowa State University under Joseph Gilman who amongst other accomplishments had written a book on soil fungi.   I actually worked on fungi associated with deterioration of corn in storage so didn't get much exposure to soil fungi.   When I took up a mycology position in Canada I knew virtually nothing about fungi in soil so I thought I had better take a look what stuff was around in  Southern Ontario.   I decided to start by looking at the organic soils of Bradord Marsh which was the vegetable growing centre of the region.   I opened a Pandora's Box of fungi and was getting so many unusual or interesting fungi that it kept me more than busy for the next 8 years (1958-1966).   I had done so much work to identify all these things from Ontario soils that I decided to write a book on it.  By 1966 I completed a manuscript entitled ' The Genera of Hyphomycetes from Soil'  that was eventually published in 1968.   I had developed other interests along the way and moved on to other things (parasexual cycle, mycotoxins, nematode-destroying fungi.

Amongst one of my early finds from organic soil was Staphylotrichum coccosporum above.    It took me a while to ID this fungus as it was originally described from soil in Africa ........more later