About

Research interests

I am a plant scientist with a background in natural history, having started out as a field bryologist. I am interested in land plant evolution, development, and fungal interactions with bryophytes. I currently work in the Carella group at the John Innes Centre (UK) on evolutionary plant–microbe interactions, attempting to bring together my background in bryophilous fungi with cutting-edge techniques in the lab.

While I am interested in all bryophilous fungi, my focus is on ascomycetes that express sexual reproductive stages on their hosts. I have three streams of long-term, independent research that I conduct in my own time.

1. Bryophilous ascomycetes of Britain and Ireland: floristic studies, species accounts, distribution patterns. This website is something of a draft ahead of publishing a comprehensive guide to all species in GBI, which will take a lot of time.
2. Taxonomy and systematics of bryophilous ascomycetes. My taxonomic focus at the moment has been on Leotiomycetes such as Bryoscyphus, as well as the genera Bryocentria and Epibryon.
3. Diversity, evolution and function of bryophyte-fungal interactions: influences of fungi on bryophyte development. I have long been interested in how some fungi can alter host development to make galls, but also in how infection by one fungus may exclude other fungi.

Publications

Note: this website is a summary of largely unpublished observations – there will be errors and omissions. It aims to serve as a gallery of information rather than a definitive, reviewed guide. Identifications should always be checked in the primary literature.

Acknowledgements: thank you to everybody who has contributed, both towards the website and also species identification, fieldwork and discussion over the years. It has been and continues to be a great journey. Special thanks to Dr Peter Döbbeler, without whom I would never have managed to contribute towards this exciting field of bryo-mycology.