Today on the Mushroom Hour Podcast we are honored to be joined by Else Vellinga.  In her career as a mycologist, Else has described 22 new mushroom species in California. Her most recent work is at the University and Jepson Herbaria at UC Berkeley, and at UCSF, on the Microfungi Collections Digitization project. She received her training at the National Herbarium of the Netherlands, and earned her PhD at the University of Leiden (layden).  Additionally, Else is a researcher and professor with the Bruns Laboratory at UC Berkeley. The main motivation for her taxonomic work is that it lays the basis for efforts to include mushroom species in nature management and conservation plans.  She has proposed several species for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a global database of endangered species. She concentrates especially on Lepiotas, or Parasol mushrooms.  Else is an avid knitter and uses mushroom dyed yarn for her creations.   TOPICS COVERED:   Growing up in Netherlands Wilderness  What are Scientific Names Based On?  Importance of Physical Features   Impact of DNA Sequences on Taxonomy  ITS, Multiple Gene Sequence and Whole Genome Phylogenetic Information  Monophyletic vs Paraphyletic Genera  What is Sufficient Difference to Make a New Taxonomic Grouping?  Relationship Between Genera and Clades  How are Names Selected? Does There Need to be a Consensus?  Process of Naming a Species  Potential Taxonomic Shakeups  Fungal Conservation  Fungal Diversity Survey  Official State Mushrooms  Education, Outreach and Awareness Central to Conservation Efforts  EPISODE RESOURCES:   Else Vellinga ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Else-Vellinga  University and Jepson Herbaria: https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/  National Herbarium of the Netherlands: https://plants.jstor.org/partner/NHN  Bruns Laboratory: https://nature.berkeley.edu/brunslab/  IUCN Fungi List: https://www.iucn.org/commissions/ssc-groups/plants-fungi/fungi  Global Fungal Redlist Initiative: http://iucn.ekoo.se/en/iucn/welcome  Fungal Diversity Survey (FunDiS): https://fundis.org/  Lepiota (Fungal Genus): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lepiota  Entoloma (Fungal Genus): https://www.mushroomexpert.com/entoloma.html  Cryptomarasmius (Fungal Genus): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptomarasmius