23-DEC-2010
By Stephanie Mounaud

Holiday Art

Fungal Christmas Tree.

In a relatively unknown place, on the 3rd floor of JCVI in Rockville, MD, is a small fungal room where art meets science (and of course where all our fungal research takes place). Fungus often gets such a bad reputation for being gross and somewhat ‘standard’. We fungal folks know better and I am hoping to educate others with the underlying beauty that fungi possess, in a funky way. I recognize that beauty is in the eye of the beholder but I felt this might convince some that fungus can be fun and not just something that grows in the back of your fridge or a nuisance that contaminates your plates. Please enjoy these funky fungal holiday art forms.

Fungal Christmas tree. Top: Talaromyces stipitatus; Tree: Aspergillus nidulans; Ornaments: Penicillium marneffei; Trunk: Aspergillus terreus.
Fungal Christmas tree. Top: Talaromyces stipitatus; Tree: Aspergillus nidulans; Ornaments: Penicillium marneffei; Trunk: Aspergillus terreus.
Fungal snowman. Hat, Eyes, Mouth, Buttons: Aspergillus niger; Arms: Aspergillus nidulans; Nose: Aspergillus terreus with Penicillium marneffei; Body: Neosartorya fischeri.
Fungal snowman. Hat, Eyes, Mouth, Buttons: Aspergillus niger; Arms: Aspergillus nidulans; Nose: Aspergillus terreus with Penicillium marneffei; Body: Neosartorya fischeri.

I am open to suggestions and only limited by my own creativity (and of course my current work load) but never by the diversity of the very cool fungal world.