United States
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The historical counties of Cheshire, Lancashire, Westmorland and Cumberland have a rich diversity of geology, landscape, vegetation and wildlife. This is an account of a group of fascinating fungi, the downy and powdery mildews. They belong to quite different groups of fungi, in the broadest sense, and are important parasites on flowering plants.
After a short introduction to the biology and ecology of mildews, the physical and ecological environment of old Cheshire, Lancashire and Cumbria is described. The main part of the book is a detailed catalogue of all the species ever recorded in the region. The records date back to the nineteenth century but are mostly concentrated in the last sixty years, up to the present. Of particular interest is the evolutionary relationship between the fungi and their hosts – an excellent example of co-evolution in action.
The author taught at Chester College, now the University of Chester from 1971 to 2013 and is Visiting Professor of Environmental Biology and Emeritus Professor of Applied Science at the University. He has studied mildews for more than fifty years and has published numerous papers on the group. He lived in Mold for nearly forty years but is now retired to the north-west Highlands of Scotland, where he continues to research the local fungi.
