“Whilst visiting friends atop Mount Warburton Pike on Saturna Island in 1982, I found little mushrooms growing on a rotting woollen carpet heaped in their garden. This carpet at one time was sunk with a boat in False Creek for a month, and after salvage served as an outdoor carpet till decay rendered it more suitable as garden mulch. The same Melanotus species was found on discarded blue-jeans, rolled up work socks, seat covers of abandoned cars, furniture upholstery, old hemp rope and a variety of other man-made fibres so it was given the name Melanotus textilis. The designated TYPE specimen was growing on jute-like fabric of an abandoned chair in woods on the Musqueam Indian Reservation near UBC.”

Paul Kroeger, Mycologist at UBC