Fungi of the Greater Antilles – Puerto Rico: Marasmius haematocephalus (Mont.) Fr.

Trips to Puerto Rico were made in 1975, 1991, and 1993 to collect fungal decomposers of woody plants, especially the white rot fungi. The idea was to obtain these fungi in culture in order to later screen them for their high delignification abilities as part of a biopulping project. Generally, tropical broad-leaved trees have slightly higher lignin content than temperate trees, and so there may be stronger delignifying fungi in the tropics. The primary industrial interest was to reduce costs by lowering the amount of electrical power required to grind up wood for paper pulp. However, decomposer fungi of all types were collected, and to a large extent photographs were taken to record their fresh in situ characteristics.