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Common microfungi of Costa Rica
and other tropical regions. |
PULLMAN – Jack Rogers, WSU Regents professor of plant pathology, has co-authored a comprehensive, bilingual treatise on microfungi in Costa Rica and other tropical regions. The book is published by INBio, a Costa Rican biodiversity institute.
“Our objective is that this illustrated guide can also be useful for biologists, naturalists, scientists, students and the general public because it illustrates a little-known biodiversity of Costa Rica and other tropical regions,” Rogers said.
“Fungi have been poorly studied despite their economic and ecological importance,” he said. “Worldwide, there are an estimated 1,500,000 species and only approximately 5-10 percent are known.
“The majority belong to the taxonomic group Ascomycota (ascomycetes),” he said. “Most of the ascomycetes are so small that they can only be seen with a magnifying glass or microscope. For this reason, most ascomycetes are also known as microfungi.”
The four authors are involved in mycological investigations in the tropics in various parts of the world. They have worked together in various combinations in various locations. This book is the result of collaborative efforts in Costa Rica sponsored in part by INBio.
Rogers has published numerous papers on Costa Rican fungi and is writing a book about similar fungi from the Hawaiian Islands. His most recent collaborative effort was a book on ascomycetous fungi of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee and North Carolina.