Day 253: In a paper published in Vienna in January 1996, Myriosclerotinia caricis-ampullaceae is referred to as "very rare," and goes on to describe it as occurring on two species of Carex, C. lasiocarpa and C. rostrata. The latter Carex is included in many PNW field guides, but there is some confusion regarding the sedges, and whether or not our Mount Rainier beaked sedge is Carex rostrata or Carex utriculata is a subject open for debate among botanists. This information opens the question of whether or not our discovery of the fungus shows a heretofore unrecorded host, or whether it could be a local subspecies. DNA research shows that specimens taken in Europe (notably from Finland, Sweden, Belgium and Czechoslovakia) are identical to those found in the US and Canada. We must also consider that the Carex host recorded in 1985 and detailed in the paper might have been misidentified. One question generates another, which in turn gives rise to many more. Oh, to have another fifty years to find the answers!
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