In an Ecuadorian Cloud Forest, Two Mycologists Catalogue Hundreds of Fantastical Fungi

Art
Photography
Science

#algae
#Danny Newman and Roo Vandegrift
#fungi
#mushrooms

In an Ecuadorian Cloud Forest, Two Mycologists Catalogue Hundreds of Fantastical Fungi

July 17, 2023

Kate Mothes

Marasmius sect. Marasmius. All images © Danny Newman, shared with permission

Scientists believe that less than 4% percent of the world’s fungi have been documented, which adds up to only 150,000 species described out of an estimated 2.2-3.8 million worldwide. Mycologists Danny Newman and Roo Vandegrift have spent the last 12 years focusing on locations impacted by the climate crisis and increasing human interference, like Ecuador’s Reserva Los Cedros. Newman’s stunning photographs (previously) capture the vibrant hues, delicate gills, and thin stems of a vast range of fungi in the mountainous cloud forest.

In 2016, the Ecuadorian government declared the Los Cedros reserve—one of the last unlogged watersheds on the western slope of the Andes—open for mining, putting countless flora, fauna, and funga at risk. “In a stunning legal upset, the mining concessions which threatened to turn Los Cedros into a toxic, barren wasteland were rescinded by the Ecuadorian supreme court, who specifically cited…our fungal diversity research in their ruling,” Newman says.

Spanning six expeditions, the duo, with a team of scientists from both Ecuador and the USA, recently published an in-depth survey of their findings, cataloguing a wealth of previously unknown species and providing what Newman calls “one of the most comprehensive contributions to Ecuadorian mycology in the country’s history.” Vandegrift is also the producer of a visually stunning upcoming documentary titled Marrow of the Mountain, filmed in part during an expedition in 2018 and 2019.

Explore more images and descriptions on iNaturalist and both Newman and Vandegrift’s Instagrams.

Aurapex penicilliata

Favolaschia sp.A

indet. Mycenaceae

Fibulostilbum phylaciicola

indet. Agaricales

indet. cf. Ceriporia

indet. cf. Trichopeziza

indet. Physalacriaceae

Mycena sect. Longisetae

#algae
#Danny Newman and Roo Vandegrift
#fungi
#mushrooms

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