Five days of the conference «Species concept in Fungi…» is over and i am back with good memories and small souvenir collection of specimens. The conference was held at the biological station of Moscow State University in Zvenigorod, a beautiful place with protected sector of forest. The forest has interesting composition of conifers plus broadleaf trees: linden, maple, oak all unfamiliar to me and surprising. We were foraying each early morning and after-supper time, searching for interesting species and then swimming in fresh waters of Moscow river. One species from our collection is supposed to be a new for the macrofungi checklist of the station (so, we did not swim in vain). There was also one full day of field excursions with subsequent fungal exhibition, an excellent species diversity was presented on the table and wonderful comments accompanied by.

But, the main part of the meeting were lectures dedicated to molecular systematics and phylogeny of fungi in general and different groups in particular. Thus, mycologists are no more relying upon their eyes but use molecular techniques plus complex mathematical analyses for species systematics. And our eyes (and morphological characters) could say anything reliable about evolutionary process. Of course this is not news, but I still do not use these methods and working in traditional way. It is no use to die like a dinosaurs.. unless it would not be important from some other side of coin:) like ecology, or some practical reasons. But better to have different tools for exploring the world.

A conference proceedings are under the link (in Russian) http://mycol-algol.ru/materials/ZBS-School-2017.pdf
and my photo-memories uploaded to our album.
+ a collection from 30 specimens stored in our fungarium.