This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-25705024
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
Version 0 | Version 1 |
---|---|
Rare fungus may have arrived on WWI soldiers' boots | Rare fungus may have arrived on WWI soldiers' boots |
(about 7 hours later) | |
A rare fungus discovered near a former Edinburgh war hospital may have been unwittingly brought to the area by World War One soldiers. | A rare fungus discovered near a former Edinburgh war hospital may have been unwittingly brought to the area by World War One soldiers. |
The fungi Clavulinopsis cinereoides - rarely seen in Europe - has been spotted for the first time in Scotland. | The fungi Clavulinopsis cinereoides - rarely seen in Europe - has been spotted for the first time in Scotland. |
Ecologist Abbie Patterson made the discovery on a lawn at Napier University's Craiglockhart Campus. | Ecologist Abbie Patterson made the discovery on a lawn at Napier University's Craiglockhart Campus. |
He said soldiers' boots may have picked up spores while tramping the fields of Flanders. | |
During World War One the university campus site served as a military hospital where the war poets Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon were famously treated. | During World War One the university campus site served as a military hospital where the war poets Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon were famously treated. |
Mr Patterson said: "Looking at an old photograph of First World War officers standing on the grass banking where I found the fungi, my thoughts turned to the question of how the species arrived here at all. | |
"I thought of the soldiers' boots trampling the devastated fields of Flanders and perhaps picking up spores of C cinereoides and then depositing them on that grassy bank below the old Hydropathic." | "I thought of the soldiers' boots trampling the devastated fields of Flanders and perhaps picking up spores of C cinereoides and then depositing them on that grassy bank below the old Hydropathic." |
Mr Patterson discovered the species whilst working on a contract to catalogue biodiversity amongst plants, birds, mammals, lichens and invertebrates for Edinburgh Napier University. | |
Head of the contract, Jamie Pearson, said: "This discovery was most unexpected. | Head of the contract, Jamie Pearson, said: "This discovery was most unexpected. |
"The fungus has now been accepted and entered into the records as a first for Scotland and the specimen is now with the Royal Edinburgh Botanic Garden Herbarium and is the only specimen they have of this species. | "The fungus has now been accepted and entered into the records as a first for Scotland and the specimen is now with the Royal Edinburgh Botanic Garden Herbarium and is the only specimen they have of this species. |
"The potential link with the likes of Owen and Sassoon is particularly exciting." | "The potential link with the likes of Owen and Sassoon is particularly exciting." |