ABSTRACT

The indigenous people of the United States and Canada long have used forest fungi for food, tinder, medicine, paint, and many other cultural uses. New information about historical uses of fungi continues to be discovered from museums as accessions of fungi and objects made from fungi collected over the last 150+ years are examined and identified. Two textiles thought to be made from fungal mats are located in the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, and the Oakland Museum of California. Scanning electron microscopy and DNA sequencing were used to attempt to identify the fungus that produced the mats. Although DNA sequencing failed to yield a taxonomic identification, microscopy and characteristics of the mycelial mats suggest that the mats were produced by Laricifomes officinalis. This first report of fungal mats used for textile by indigenous people of North America will help to alert museum curators and conservators as well as mycological researchers to their existence and hopefully lead to more items being discovered that have been made from fungal fabric.

摘要

美国和加拿大的土著人民长期以来一直将森林真菌用于食品、火种、医药、油漆和许多其他文化用途。随着过去 150 多年收集的真菌和由真菌制成的物品的收集被检查和鉴定，有关真菌历史用途的新信息不断从博物馆中被发现。两种被认为由真菌垫制成的纺织品位于达特茅斯学院的胡德艺术博物馆和加利福尼亚州奥克兰博物馆。使用扫描电子显微镜和 DNA 测序来尝试识别产生垫子的真菌。尽管 DNA 测序未能产生分类学鉴定，但菌丝垫的显微镜检查和特征表明菌垫是由Laricifomes officinalis产生的. 第一份关于北美土著人用于纺织品的真菌垫的报告将有助于提醒博物馆馆长和保护人员以及真菌学研究人员它们的存在，并有望导致更多由真菌织物制成的物品被发现。