Talk:Auriscalpium vulgare/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: J Milburn (talk) 23:24, 17 January 2011 (UTC)

I'd love to find one of these, but no luck yet...

• Good luck! This seems like one you'd have to be crawling on your hands and knees to find (although that's a common posture for real mushroom hunters). I have a Scots pine in my front yard, so this coming year I plan to collect the cones and bury them, see what happens .... Sasata (talk) 05:11, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

• "has a dark brown, cap covered" Lose the comma?

• Yes. Sasata (talk) 05:11, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

• In the prose, you imply that the Duchess's collection was the first ever, as opposed to the first in Britain.

• Reworded. Sasata (talk) 05:11, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

• "by the English botanist, Reverend John Lightfoot" if retaining "the", remove the comma, if retaining the comma, change "the" to "a"?

• Did the latter, changed to "an". Sasata (talk) 05:11, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

• "The species was transferred to its current genus in 1821 by Samuel Frederick Gray, who made it the type species of the genus Auriscalpium." Odd way of saying that, rephrase? Perhaps also specify that he called it vulgare?

• Rephrased and specified. Sasata (talk) 05:11, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

• "spine-fungus" spine fungi? And links to clavarioid fungi and bolete would be useful?

• I reworded an earlier linked instance of "teeth" fungi to "spine fungi to be consistent throughout. As for bolete I assume you meant poroid? Linked now. Sasata (talk) 05:11, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

• Perhaps experiment with moving the mycomorphbox to the description section? It seems a little odd that it is in the taxonomy section, while the cladogram is alongside the description.

• I moved the cladogram to the left side, is that better? I suppose if necessary I could dump the pic of Maggie Bentinck to make more room in that section (although I'd rather not... it's not too often I can add "human interest" in a mushroom article!) Sasata (talk) 05:11, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

• "it has also been referred to as the "fir-cone Hydnum", when it was still a member of that genus" You swap tense

• Tenses aligned. Sasata (talk) 05:11, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

• "several fruit bodies arise from a common base" Does "fruit body" not refer to the whole mushroom? If so, that'd be like saying "several trees from the same trunk"?

• Reworded and moved this down to the stem discussion. Sasata (talk) 05:11, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

• "and reaches diameters of 0.5–2 cm (0.2–0.8 in)" "reaches" implies that you are going to give the upper limit

• Reworded. Sasata (talk) 05:11, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

• "ashen" is a lovely word which you could use instead of "ashey"- ashey's probably better, but I like the way "ashen" sounds :)

• More poetic perhaps, but I think "pale" or "anemic" rather than ash-colored when I hear it. Sasata (talk) 05:11, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

• "The surface is covered with hairy fibers (especially near the base), and a dark chestnut-brown color" Missing a word or two?

  "is". Sasata (talk) 05:11, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

• cortical, fibrillose, laterally- a little technical. I don't mind them, others might- I'd avoid them, personally

• Have reworded or removed them. Sasata (talk) 05:11, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

• "A drop of potassium hydroxide applied to the surface of the mushroom will instantly stain black" Picky, but would it not be the mushroom staining, rather than the KOH?

• Not picky at all, just correct. Sasata (talk) 05:11, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

• "The mushroom is generally considered inedible because of its toughness and small size.[22] However, an 1887 textbook noted that it was "commonly eaten in France and Italy".[23]" Perhaps merge the sentences?

• United by semicolon. Sasata (talk) 05:11, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

• "slender extensions that attach the spore to the basidium" spores to the basidia? You refer to sterigmata as opposed to a sterigmatum.

• Corrected. Sasata (talk) 05:11, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

• "agglutinated"?

• Now "clumped together". Sasata (talk) 05:11, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

• "gloeocystidia"?

• Now wikt'd on 1st occurrence. Sasata (talk) 05:11, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

• (Just as an aside, I feel a long way from qualified to comment on the details about the hyphae- it reads well, but I'm just gonna have to accept on good faith that it makes sense. I don't think this is a criticism; you're talking about something complex and advanced, you aren't going to be able to dumb it down far enough for everyone to understand it, but for it to still be concise and useful.)

• Yeah, I know. Per my usual strategy, I'm hoping some time away from the article will help me achieve "Strategic distance" so that I may rework the prose to achieve a better balance between scientific accuracy and layman-readability. Sasata (talk) 05:11, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

• Category:Fungi in cultivation?

• Nah, that's for fungi people would actually want to eat :) Sasata (talk) 05:11, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

• "inoculum block"?

• Reworded. Sasata (talk) 05:11, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

• "mycelium" Link? Do you mean for this to be singular?

• Like I told you before, I always get this wrong ... Sasata (talk) 05:11, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

• I see you define gloeocystidia here, but didn't earlier.
• What's the point of growing them in culture? Does it serve any real purpose?

• At the time, it was useful for researchers to be able to grow this and other related fungi in pure culture to compare microscopic characteristics and make inferences about phylogenetic relationships. It was (and still is) novel that they were able to make it form fruit bodies as well. Today, the necessity of this technique for phylogenetics has been much reduced by the prevalence of DNA analysis, so I'm probably gonna chop this section down to a single paragraph before FAC. Sasata (talk) 05:11, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

• If it's helpful, Sterry notes that it grows on buried/partially buried pine cones, while Phillips notes "buried decaying" pine cones, and adds that it can be found all year, and Kibby says it is found in autumn. (I updated the page numbers, didn't update the style.)
  • Sterry, Paul; Hughes, Barry (2009). Complete Guide to British Mushrooms & Toadstools. HarperCollins. p. 280. ISBN 9780007232246.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Phillips, Roger (1981). Mushrooms and Other Fungi of Great Britain and Europe. London: Pan Books. p. 242. ISBN 0330264419.
  • Kibby, Geoffrey (2003). Mushrooms and Toadstools of Britain and Northern Europe. Hamlyn. p. 208. ISBN 9780753718650.

• Thanks, I added buried/partially buried from Sterry. Sasata (talk) 05:11, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

Great article, cool mushroom. I take it that this is the next FAC? (I was probably harsher on it than I would normally be at GAC, but I don't expect you'll mind!) J Milburn (talk) 00:15, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

Probably not the next FAC (need time away for strategic distance), but it's certainly in the queue. Thanks for a thorough review, it definitely helped. Sasata (talk) 05:11, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

Looking good, promoted. I look forward to seeing this at FAC :) J Milburn (talk) 11:08, 18 January 2011 (UTC)