During the latest part of the Quaternary period (approximately from 11,000 to 50,000 years ago), a variety of large animals went extinct across extensive areas of the planet (Martin & Klein, 1984; MacPhee, 1999). Although a widespread phenomenon, late Quaternary extinctions of the so-called ‘megafauna’ varied greatly in intensity and timing around the world. So, while Europe, Asia, and Africa experienced only limited losses toward the end of the Pleistocene, the Americas, Australia, Madagascar and many Oceanic islands suffered dramatic extinctions. In North America, more than two-thirds of the mammals weighing more than 44 kg disappeared about 11,000 years ago (Alroy, 2001). Nearly at the same time, in South America most of the species of medium to large mammals also vanished. Australia witnessed an even more catastrophic continent-wide die-off. Some 23 of the 24 genera of Australian land vertebrates with a body mass of 45 to 1000 kilograms had died out by around 46,000 years ago (Roberts et al., 2001). The casualties of this ‘marvellous fact’, as the English naturalist Alfred Russell Wallace called it over a century ago (Wallace, 1876), bear exotic names that evoke fantastic images. Among them were fearsome claw-footed kangaroos that weighed 300 kilograms and the giant marsupial equivalents of rhinoceros and leopard in Australia. Somewhat later in North America, sabre-toothed cats, giant bisons, mammoths, mastodons, and also less well known mammals like the short-faced bear and the giant beaver went extinct. The whopping half-ton elephant birds, the heaviest birds ever known, giant lemurs and other strange beasts disappeared from the island of Madagascar within the last millennium (Burney, 1999).

This handsome species of Penicillium (Fig 1) is widely used in mycology teaching as a fine example of a coremiform mould. It readily grows on commonly available laboratory media, such as malt extract and Czapek Dox agars, producing large white to pink stalked coremia which are positively phototropic.

Placed by Raper & Thom (1949) in their Asymmetrica-Fasciculata these authors comment that it “ - is not common in nature for few original isolations have been reported.” Pitt (1979) placed the majority of species of the Asymmetrica into the more formal subgenus Penicillium but placed P. claviforme and related species into the subgenus Biverticillium on the basis of his assessment of the fine structure of the phialides. However, work by Frisvad & Filtenborg (1983) and Logrieco, Peterson & Wicklow (1990) confirmed that it should remain in the subgenus Penicillium. It is interesting that Pitt also comments that the species is rare!

Unfortunately for those whose memory for names was established many decades ago the well known name Penicillium claviforme Bainier established in 1905 had to give way to an older specific epithet, Penicillium vulpinum (Cooke & Massee) Seifert & Samson, and it is judged that there is no case for conserving the name P. claviforme, however deeply engrained it has become in the literature (Frisvad et al., 1990). The name P. vulpinum arose through a study by Seifert & Samson (1985) on the type specimens of species originally attributed to the genus Coremium. One of these, which was shown to be identical with P. claviforme, was Coremium vulpinum Cooke & Massee described in 1888, the holotype of which is on dung and is part of the M. C. Cooke collection held at Kew. Indeed, the species P. vulpinum ( = P. claviforme) is most commonly found in nature associated with dung, usually on rabbit droppings. So it was described by George Smith as “ common on dung, where the coremia are readily visible to the naked eye, and it is sometimes isolated from soil.” (Onions, Allsopp & Eggins, 1981).

Phytophthora ramorum is a recently described species responsible for sudden oak death syndrome and also causes symptoms such as twig wilt and dieback, stem lesions, necrosis of leaf midrib from the petiole and leaf tip necrosis on a range of ornamental plant species. In the USA, a reported epidemic of P. ramorum infections on trees belonging to several families including Fagaceae, Lauraceae and Ericaceae seems to be increasing and there are fears of similar epidemics occurring in woodlands in the UK and mainland Europe. This paper reviews the current state of knowledge and the research efforts being made to understand the biology, manage the disease and prevent widespread outbreaks of P. ramorum infections across Europe and the USA.

In 1993, a new species of Phytophthora was first recognised as the cause of a disease killing both nursery and mature rhododendrons in Germany and The Netherlands. The same fungus was observed attacking Viburnum in 1998 in Germany. It was named as P. ramorum in 2001 (Werres et al., 2001).

Since 1995, a disease of native coastal oaks (Quercus and Lithocarpus spp.) has been observed in California and Oregon. A Phytophthora species was isolated from affected bark in 2000 and also confirmed as P. ramorum in 2001 (Rizzo et al., 2002). The disease caused by P. ramorum was named in the American popular press ‘sudden oak death’ following the extensive mortality caused by this fungus on the native Californian oaks (Rizzo et al., 2002). Since then the name of the disease has remained but with the increasing number of different hosts from which P. ramorum has been isolated and the range of symptoms, names such as ‘ramorum dieback’ and ‘ramorum leaf blight’ have been used to refer to the disease. The latin name ‘ramus’, meaning ‘branch’ refers to the pathogenicity of the fungus on branches (Werres et al., 2001).

The disease has been found in the following countries: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands, Poland (interceptions), Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, UK, USA (California, Oregon and Washington). It is believed that the fungus has been introduced independently to northern Europe and western USA from an unidentified third country, i.e. it is not regarded as indigenous in either USA or Europe based on the recent discovery of the fungus, the differences in the population of the fungus between the two continents and the clonal structure of the sub-populations (Brasier, 2003; Rizzo & Garbelotto, 2003).

Recent laboratory experiments challenge the long-held view that Candida albicans is asexual and suggest that sexual recombination could occur outside the laboratory and be part of the reproductive strategy of the species. Population genetics studies, however, find little evidence, among clinical isolates, of the recombinant lineages the sexual cycle should generate. A possible explanation of these results is that the progeny of sexual recombination cannot compete with asexually propagating lineages, challenging the widely-held idea that sexual recombination is superior to asexual propagation.

The art, mythology, and controversial science surrounding Ganoderma lucidum (Ling Chih) in China are described.

It is well known that many fungi are host-specific, i.e. their fruiting is restricted to one host plant or a group of closely related hosts. An example is Hypoxylon fragiforme whose perithecial stromata are common on dead trunks and branches of beech, Fagus sylvatica (Fig 1), but are only occasionally found on other woody hosts. Mycelium of H. fragiforme is present mainly in the sapwood rather than the bark of branches of healthy beech trees, and this fungus has therefore been called a xylotropic endophyte (Chapela, 1989). Colonization is not extensive so long as the water content of infected host tissue remains high, but if branches are cut from living trees and allowed to dry, the mycelium extends rapidly (Chapela & Boddy, 1988a,b; Chapela, 1989).

Many an undergraduate biologist will remember the excitement/fear of using radio-labelled substrates (usually 14C) during carefully supervised laboratory practicals. They will also remember the precautions taken to avoid contact with the radioactive source and to account for all the materials used. The use of radiolabelled compounds (mainly 3H, 14C, 32P or 35S) is commonplace though carefully controlled, and the utilisation of such compounds for field experiments is severely restricted. A further limitation in ecological research is that the radioactive isotope of nitrogen (13N) has a half life of only a few minutes.