How East Carpathians made Czech mycology great? Cognitive colonizing of nature in search of scientific competitiveness
Abstract
How East Carpathians made Czech mycology great? Cognitive colonizing of nature in search of scientific competitiveness
Czechs are not only well known as mushroom foragers, but also Czech mycologists have gained high international prestige in the study of different species of fungi. In the narrative about Czech mycology and its "journey to international fame" (as it is told by mycologists themselves) several scientists play an important role, but the key scholar who established the discipline both within academia and in the public was Albert Pilát. He began his research in 1920s as an assistant to another significant figure in mycology Josef Velenovský and in 1930s he regularly visited Eastern part of Podkarpatská Rus where he collected fungi. In the virgin forests of Carpathian Chornohora he collected and processed tens of thousands of specimens which became a core collection of mycological herbarium of Czech National Museum. Furthermore, he managed to exchange duplicate samples with mycological institutes all around the world which helped him to establish himself as a leading scholar within international network of mycologists. In 1936-1942 he published an extensive monograph (in Czech and in French) on Polyporaceae, a family of fungi that grow on dead wood. In my paper I will explore this Pilát's early career research and the role East Carpathians' forests and their mushrooms played in establishing the disciplinary field of mycology in Czech(oslovak) and international context.