WAR FUNGI To Return To China - PHOTOS

[Bianca]

                                                       "War Fungi" to Return to China       






NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
April 30, 2009

--After being stored at Cornell University in New York State for nearly 70 years, part of a rare collection of
more than 2,000 species of Chinese fungi (including Trametes cinnabarina, pictured above) will soon be on
its way back to its native land. On April 13 a Chinese delegation arrived at the university to begin the pro-
cess of repatriating the organisms.

Cornell's fungi collection, which includes many species that were the first of their kind to be collected and identified, came from Chinese mycology graduate student S.C. Teng. In the 1920s Teng left Cornell before graduating to scour his country for fungi, collecting thousands of samples with his team.

But Teng was forced to ship 2,000 specimens back to the university in 1940 when the Japanese invaded
China during World War II. Up until that point, Teng's collections had been stored in Nanjing, site of the in-
famous Nanjing Massacre, in which more than 300,000 people--mostly civilians--were killed and the city all
but destroyed.

"The specimens are impressive in themselves, but more so due to their poignant history and the personal sacrifices made by Mr. Teng and his family to save them from destruction," Cornell president David Skorton
said in a statement.



—Photograph courtesy

Kent Loefller,
Cornell University 

[Bianca]

'Phellinus pini' is one of the 2,000 specimens of fungi that will soon be returned to their native China after 70 years being kept at Cornell University.

"These specimens are invaluable for Chinese mycologists to have available, so they can document their own current flora and gain some insight into what conditions were at the time they were collected," said Richard P. Korf, director emeritus of Cornell's Plant Pathology Herbarium, in a statement.

"Many of these collection areas no longer exist in China."

[Bianca]

A new generation of Chinese mycologists, or scientists who study fungi, will soon benefit from the return of thousands of fungi specimens (above, Exobasidium sawadae on cinnamon berries) kept at Cornell University since the 1930s.

Experts at the university's Plant Pathology Herbarium are now working with a Chinese delegation to repatriate the specimens, which were safeguarded at the herbarium during the outbreak of World War II. The fungi will be sent back to China sometime in 2010.

[Bianca]

Many of the specimens in Cornell University's Chinese fungi collection (above, Puccinia angelicaeedulis), gathered from the Chinese wilderness in the 1920s, were the first samples
of their species to be found.

Sometime in 2010 the 2,000-plus specimens will return to their native China after 70 years
of safekeeping at the American university.

[Bianca]

Coriolopsis phaea is among the 2,000 specimens of Chinese fungi that will be returned to
China in 2010.

Chinese mycologist S.C. Teng sent the organisms to Cornell University for protection in
1940, after the outbreak of World War II threatened his family and work.

The specimens that Teng was not able to ship were destroyed in the war.

[Bianca]

Following 70 years of "careful stewardship" by Cornell University scientists, more than 2,000 Chinese
fungi specimens (including the Aecidium osmanthi above) will soon be returned to China.

"The fungi will be carefully prepared and documented in coming months, so we can accomplish the safe repatriation of this important collection on my next visit to Beijing at a mutually agreed upon time,"

University President David Skorton said in a statement.

[Bianca]

An ant infected with the fungus Cordyceps myrmecophila is part of a collection of more than 2,000
samples of Chinese fungi kept safe at Cornell University since World War II.

S.C. Teng, a Cornell graduate student who gathered many of the specimens in China in the 1920s,
risked his life after the outbreak of the war to send the fungi to safety.

[Bianca]

The Chinese government will soon reclaim more than 2,000 samples of Chinese fungi (above,
Trametes hirsuta) that were stored at Cornell University for nearly 70 years.

Chinese graduate student S.C. Teng collected the fungi in China in the 1920s. After Teng's
death in 1970, his family worked to complete his book on Chinese fungi, much of which was
based on the Cornell collection. The book was published in 1996.

China's State Councilor Liu Yandong called Cornells efforts to return the collection to its
native land



                     "a demonstration of the friendship of your university toward the Chinese people."

[Bianca]

Following 70 years of "careful stewardship" by Cornell University scientists, more than 2,000 Chinese
fungi specimens (including the Aecidium osmanthi above) will soon be returned to China.

"The fungi will be carefully prepared and documented in coming months, so we can accomplish the safe repatriation of this important collection on my next visit to Beijing at a mutually agreed upon time,"

University President David Skorton said in a statement.