This paper sketches the origins and the history of the British Mycological Society over its first century with emphasis on the individuals and institutions which have nurtured it.

A new species of Zoophagus, Z. cornus, capturing loricate rotifers on short peg-like traps, was isolated from paddy field mud in Ibaraki, Japan. The fungus produced long, narrow, cylindrical, aseptate conidia. Azygospores containing a large vacuole were produced directly from the hyphae.

Monilinia fructigena secretes one molecular form of endo-polygalacturonase (PG) in apple fruits infected by it. This PG, purified from culture filtrate to homogeneity, had an Mr of ca 33000 (SDS electrophoresis) and a pI value of ca 9·75. It had little or no effect on the structural integrity of potato tuber tissues, nor on the viability of apple callus cells in suspension. Modification of the lysine units of the purified enzyme by pyridoxal phosphate resulted in ca 50% decrease in PG activity. PG thus modified appeared to bind to an apple fibre preparation less than did PG not treated with pyridoxal phosphate. Lysine residues may thus be involved in subsites binding this PG to carboxyl groups in the polygalacturonate.

Armillaria mellea and A. tabescens stimulated the production of perithecia and ascospores of Sordaria fimicola shown by the co-culture, spore-plate, over-agar-culture, and culture broth assay methods. Culture diffusate of Armillaria through cellophane also stimulated perithecium and ascospore production. Among 15 other isolates tested, three Mortierella isolates were significantly stimulative for ascospore production. Four vitamins including biotin and thiamine were also stimulative, and may be related to the effects of these fungi.

Genetic variation of the haploid canker pathogen fungus Gremmeniella abietina was investigated by RAPD marker analysis. A total of 126 single pycnidia isolates of G. abietina were sampled from one Pinus contorta plantation in northern Sweden. Average Nei's gene diversity over 32 putative RAPD loci was 0·29. Multilocus genotype analysis revealed 85 different genotypes among the 126 isolates sampled, of which 66 genotypes were detected only once. Nineteen genotypes were detected more than once among 41 isolates, representing 32·5% of clonal fraction of the sampled population. Gametic disequilibrium tests of the sampled population revealed significant associations between 29·6% (147 of 496) of the RAPD loci. When the clonal fraction was removed from the data set, the number of significant pairwise loci combinations decreased from 147 to 73 (14·7%), indicating a high degree of random mating. These results are consistent with previous field observations suggesting that sexual fruiting bodies of G. abietina were common in northern Scandinavia. The high genetic variability detected in the population also suggests that the population was founded by a relatively large number of unrelated genotypes.

Hirsutella versicolor, H. citriformis and H. nivea sp. nov. are described from Homoptera in Thailand. H. versicolor was usually associated with the ascomycete Torrubiella pruinosa and was isolated from ascospores. H. citriformis could not be linked with a teleomorph but was successfully isolated from conidia. H. nivea was not associated with a teleomorph and could not be isolated in pure culture.

The white-rot basidiomycete, Inonotus hispidus, produces a characteristic pattern of decay in naturally infected London plane (Platanus × hispanica) in which zones of severely decayed wood, traversed by relatively undegraded xylem rays, alternate with relatively undegraded, gummous ‘reaction zones’. Microscopic observations of London plane wood both naturally colonized and artificially inoculated with I. hispidus indicated that the resistance of reaction zones and xylem rays to degradation is due respectively to obstruction of cell lumina by tyloses and polyphenols, and infiltration of intercellular spaces by polyphenols. Inonotus hispidus was apparently able to circumvent these impedances by forming soft-rot like tunnels through the wood cell walls.

Fungi were isolated from the beetles, Ips typographus f. japonicus and Yezo spruce (Picea jezoensis) trees infested with the beetles in Hokkaido, Japan. Nine species of ophiostomatoid fungi including one new species were identified. They were Ceratocystiopsis minuta, Ceratocystis polonica, Ophiostoma ainoae, O. bicolor, O. cucullatum, O. europhioides, O. penicillatum, O. piceae, and a new species described here as O. japonicum. Based on frequencies of occurrence, O. ainoae, O. bicolor, O. penicillatum, and O. piceae were regarded as dominant associates of I. typographus japonicus, and C. minuta, C. polonica, O. europhinoides, and O. japonicum were subdominant. The species of ophiostomatoid fungi associated with I. typographus japonicus in Japan are almost identical to those associated with I. typographus infesting Norway spruce (P. abies) in Europe. This study improves our knowledge of the biogeography of the ophiostomatoid fungi and the insects with which they are associated.

Hainesia marsdeniae sp. nov. is described and illustrated from dead leaves of ?Cornus sp. collected in the U.K. It is compared with known Hainesia species and those coelomycetes with cupulate conidiomata that it resembles.

Pseudorobillarda magna sp. nov. from bark of Geoffroea decorticans, a native tree of Argentina, is described and illustrated. It is compared with the known species in the genus. This is the first report of a species of Pseudorobillarda from South America.

Penicillin was not detected in Aspergillus nidulans liquid cultures with pelleted morphology (pellets 1–5 mm diam.) but production was observed in cultures with homogeneous filamentous morphologies. Adenylate Energy Charge (AEC) and Oxygen Uptake Rates (OUR) were measured in cultures exhibiting the two morphologies and it was shown that the values of both parameters were lowest in pelleted cultures and highest in cultures with a filamentous morphology. In addition, a third morphological form, ‘micropellets’ with intermediate properties between the other two types was encountered. We propose that oxygen limitation brought about by the mass transfer restrictions of pelleted growth inhibits penicillin production.

Torrubiella hemipterigena and its anamorph, Verticillium hemipterigenum, are re-described from collections made on leafhoppers in Thailand. A new species, Verticillium pseudohemipterigenum, collected on scale insects on bamboo in Trinidad and Surinam, is proposed. Based on these collections, the taxonomic status of the genera Verticillium and Hirsutella is discussed.

The forest pathogen Dothistroma pini, which produces the polyketide toxin, dothistromin, was transformed with the pAN7-1 plasmid containing the Escherichia coli hygromycin B phosphotransferase gene (hph). The frequency of hygromycin resistant transformants was 9–48 μg−1 DNA. Southern blot analysis indicated that a single copy of the vector DNA had integrated into the genome in at least six of the eight transformants tested and that the site of integration was different in each case. All transformants analysed were mitotically stable through several subcultures without selective pressure.

The effects of liming on the composition of the mycoflora of dead, lying wood in a Scots pine stand on acid, nutrient-poor soil was studied after 5 yr. Liming led to a significant increase in species number. Amphinema byssoides, Hyphoderma puberum, Hyphodontia breviseta, Hypochnicium geogenium, and Sistotrema octosporum significantly increased, whereas Botryobasidium subcoronatum and Trechispora farinacea significantly decreased after liming. The proportion of species that are characteristic for coniferous wood decreased, whereas the proportion of indifferent species and species that are characteristic for deciduous wood increased after liming. Explanations for this species shift are discussed and an increase in nitrogen dynamics in the wood is considered the most plausible explanation. Possible ecological consequences of these changes in species composition are briefly discussed.

Alternaria guangxiensis and A. bannaensis on Passiflora spp. collected from China are described and illustrated, and their affinities to closely related species are discussed.

From the alkali-extractable material obtained from cell walls of 44 species (49 strains) of Penicillium a water-soluble fraction (F1S) was isolated. The main component (F1S-S) of fraction F1S was purified by gel permeation chromatography through Sepharose CL6B, analysed chemically and its structure determined by 1H- and 13C-NMR. Galactose was the predominant neutral sugar in this fraction. Six different polysaccharidic structures were found and the species investigated were arranged into six groups according to these structures. These results illustrate the complexity of the cell wall components of Penicillium and add to existing information on the relatedness of species of the genus with Eupenicillium and Talaromyces. The results show that there are several types of cell wall in Penicillium.

Dactylaria tunicata sp. nov. from submerged wood in a freshwater stream from Australia is described and illustrated. It differs from all previously described species of Dactylaria in having uniseptate conidia with a hyaline sheath. The 41 species of Dactylaria accepted by de Hoog are listed, together with a further 41 validly published species of Dactylaria post de Hoog. A taxonomic key to 37 of the 41 post de Hoog species is provided, based on the literature, together with a composite illustration of their conidial morphology. The other four species are discussed, but they are not considered to be Dactylaria species (sensu de Hoog).

In the coastal cliff landscape of southern Scandinavia dense populations of the saxicolous, lichen-forming fungus Lasallia pustulata are subject to disturbances creating small or larger gaps; one or several thalli are removed by strong winds, icing, rock slides, log-falls, branch sweeping or trampling. New patches for colonization are also created when mats of bryophytes, fruticose lichens or pine needles are removed by the same forces. The disturbance gaps are major sites of recruitment in the populations and the age structure of a population is spatially structured by the pattern of gap formation. The revegetation of experimentally created gaps were monitored over a four year period, at the end of which the gaps were filled with new, 1–9 mm sized thalli, unevenly scattered, on average 6500 individuals m−2, covering less than 1% of the substrate. In addition there were clusters of small thalli sprouting from the former attachment site of some of the large thalli that had been removed. The growth of individual thalli in natural gaps and mature populations was also monitored for four years. The largest annual increment in thallus diameter was 15 mm, the average 5·5 mm. Some thalli did not increase in size at all, some became slightly smaller, and some were completely eliminated, apparently by self-thinning. There was no correlation between initial thallus size and annual growth; and age and size are not correlated. The individual variations in growth rate seem to reflect the degree of initial crowding, subsequent competitive success, and local supply of nutrients. The average growth and initial size of individuals plus their density and dispersion are used to model the speed of gap-closure, estimated to be 10–15 years.