Joseph Henri Léveillé     (1796 - 1870)




a basidium

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Biography
Sources
Selected publications
Species
Genera

Biography

A medical man of Paris, Léveillé is my personal candidate for most under-appreciated mycologist. His 1837 paper "Sur le hymenium des champignons"



basidia of Psathyrella candolleana
Psathyrella candolleanaAs John Ramsbottom (1953) has pointed out, several other mycologists made the same discovery at about the same time, and "it is of little consequence to assign priority." (p. 23) However, Léveillé was clearly more effective in the presentation of his discovery. For one thing, he had been working on it for a long time, and was able to provide illustrations many different kinds of basidia and spores in boletes, gilled mushrooms, and club fungi. He also was able to show the importance of basidia for purposes of taxonomy, and proposed the conceptual split, which we still keep, between ascomycetes and basidiomycetes.


Turkey-tail basidia
Trametes versicolorHis Memoire sur le genre Sclerotium, while less earth-shattering, showed that the "organisms" placed in the genus Sclerotium had a fungal structure and were probably part of the mushrooms growing out of them (rather than a separate organism). This was an essential first step in clearing out genera that had been created for parts of fungi, such as Rhizomorpha, Byssus, and Ozonium. Byssus was a genus for white mycelium, and Ozonium a genus for colored mycelium, such as that of Coprinus radians.


the hymenium of Phlebia tremellosa
Phlebia tremellosaHe studied medicine in Paris and received his MD in 1824.
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Sources

John Ramsbottom (1953) Mushrooms and Toadstools


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Selected Publications

Joseph Henri Léveillé (1837) "Sur le hymenium des champignons" in Annales des Sciences Naturelles. Botanique (Annals of Natural History. Botanical series.) 2nd series, 8 pp. 321 - 338
In this article, Léveillé coined the terms basidium and cystidium, and proposed the modification of Fries' system of classification: division of the fleshy fungi into what are now the phyla Basidiomycotina and Ascomycotina, and the further division of Basidiomycotina into the Hymenomycetes and Gasteromycetes.

Joseph Henri Léveillé (1843) "Memoire sur le genre Sclerotium" (Memorandum on the genus Sclerotium) in Annales des Sciences Naturelles. Botanique (Annals of Natural History. Botanical series.) 2nd series, 20 pp. 218 - 248

Joseph Henri Léveillé (1846) Considérations mycologiques, suivies d'une nouvelle classification des champignons (Mycological considerations regarding a new classification of fungi) 2nd ed.

Joseph Henri Léveillé (1851) "Taxonomy of Erysiphe" in Annales des Sciences Naturelles. Botanique (Annals of Natural History. Botanical series.) 3rd series, 15 p. 109

Joseph Henri Léveillé (1855) Iconographie des Champignons de Paulet (Depiction of the Mushrooms of Paulet)
This is an unusual Flora in that its subject is not a place or a taxonomic group, but a previous author's field guide, that of Paulet.


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Species

Clavaria zolleringii Léveillé
Clavulina zolleringii (Léveillé) Donk

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Genera

Hymenochaete Léveillé
Lachnocladium Léveillé emend Corner
Microsphaera Léveillé
Phyllactinia Léveillé
Podosphaera G. Kunze: Léveillé
Sphaerotheca Léveillé
Uncinula Léveillé

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