Joseph Henri L�veill�
Joseph Henri L�veill� (1796 - 1870)
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BiographySources
Selected publications
Species
Genera
Biography
A medical man of Paris, L�veill� is my personal candidate for most under-appreciated mycologist. His 1837 paper "Sur le hymenium des champignons"- overthrew the established wisdom that all fungi produced their spores in asci,
-
"discovered" the basidium and cystidium (he coined the terms in this paper), and
- established the role of the basidium in producing spores.
As John Ramsbottom (1953) has pointed out, several other mycologists made the same discovery at about the same time, and "it is of little consequence to assign priority." (p. 23) However, L�veill� was clearly more effective in the presentation of his discovery. For one thing, he had been working on it for a long time, and was able to provide illustrations many different kinds of basidia and spores in boletes, gilled mushrooms, and club fungi. He also was able to show the importance of basidia for purposes of taxonomy, and proposed the conceptual split, which we still keep, between ascomycetes and basidiomycetes.
His Memoire sur le genre Sclerotium, while less earth-shattering, showed that the "organisms" placed in the genus Sclerotium had a fungal structure and were probably part of the mushrooms growing out of them (rather than a separate organism). This was an essential first step in clearing out genera that had been created for parts of fungi, such as Rhizomorpha, Byssus, and Ozonium. Byssus was a genus for white mycelium, and Ozonium a genus for colored mycelium, such as that of Coprinus radians.
He studied medicine in Paris and received his MD in 1824.
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Sources
John Ramsbottom (1953) Mushrooms and Toadstools Back to topSelected Publications
Joseph Henri L�veill� (1837) "Sur le hymenium des champignons" in Annales des Sciences Naturelles. Botanique (Annals of Natural History. Botanical series.) 2nd series, 8 pp. 321 - 338In this article, L�veill� coined the terms basidium and cystidium, and proposed the modification of Fries' system of classification: division of the fleshy fungi into what are now the phyla Basidiomycotina and Ascomycotina, and the further division of Basidiomycotina into the Hymenomycetes and Gasteromycetes.
In this article, L�veill� coined the terms basidium and cystidium, and proposed the modification of Fries' system of classification: division of the fleshy fungi into what are now the phyla Basidiomycotina and Ascomycotina, and the further division of Basidiomycotina into the Hymenomycetes and Gasteromycetes.
Joseph Henri L�veill� (1843) "Memoire sur le genre Sclerotium" (Memorandum on the genus Sclerotium) in Annales des Sciences Naturelles. Botanique (Annals of Natural History. Botanical series.) 2nd series, 20 pp. 218 - 248
Joseph Henri L�veill� (1846) Consid�rations mycologiques, suivies d'une nouvelle classification des champignons (Mycological considerations regarding a new classification of fungi) 2nd ed.
Joseph Henri L�veill� (1851) "Taxonomy of Erysiphe" in Annales des Sciences Naturelles. Botanique (Annals of Natural History. Botanical series.) 3rd series, 15 p. 109
Joseph Henri L�veill� (1855) Iconographie des Champignons de Paulet (Depiction of the Mushrooms of Paulet)
This is an unusual Flora in that its subject is not a place or a taxonomic group, but a previous author's field guide, that of Paulet.
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This is an unusual Flora in that its subject is not a place or a taxonomic group, but a previous author's field guide, that of Paulet.
Species
Clavaria zolleringii L�veill�Clavulina zolleringii (L�veill�) Donk Back to top
Genera
Hymenochaete L�veill�Lachnocladium L�veill� emend Corner
Microsphaera L�veill�
Phyllactinia L�veill�
Podosphaera G. Kunze: L�veill�
Sphaerotheca L�veill�
Uncinula L�veill� Back to top
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