Mushroom Hunter: Elias Magnus Fries

I first learned about mushroom hunter, Elias Magnus Fries (1794 -1878), from the writings of mycologist Dr. Susan D Libonati-Barnes in Mushrooms for Color. She described Fries as the Carl Linnaeus of mycology, and one of the founders of modern mushroom taxonomy. Before his early work in 1821, no reasonable order had been brought to fungi. Fries introduced a system that was very well organized, and based on features visible with the naked eye. Even though modern techniques are now being used to classify fungus, including microscopic and DNA techniques, his system is still used.

Fries was born in Femsjö, Sweden in 1794. He received botanical education from his father, who was a pastor and interested in natural history and flowering plants. Fries attended school in Växjö, and later received his Ph.D. from the University of Lund in 1814. He was appointed as a science lecturer at Lund, and began collecting and describing known species for his three-volume Systema Mycologicum (1821-32). He also developed a new system for classifying fungi and lichens, based on characteristics of the fruiting bodies. He used spore color and arrangement of the hymenophores (pores, gills, teeth, and so forth) as major taxonomic characteristics. Fries presented this system in Lichenographia Europaea Reformata (1831. 

Elias Magnus Fries (photo in the public domain in the U.S.)

Fries accepted a professorship at the University of Uppsala, and taught from 1834 - 1859. He was appointed Professor of Applied Economics in 1834, and became the Professor of Botany and Practical Economy in 1851. He retired from teaching in 1859 but continued to study fungi until his death in 1878. He was a prolific author of new fungal species and described 3210 of them during his career.

Fries in his sixties (photo by Henri Osti - public domain in the U.S.)

Fries and Christina Wieslander (1808 - 1862) raised nine children together. Many of them and their descendants went on to become botanists, lichenologists, researchers, head gardeners, and a physician with a strong interest in mycology. He left a multi-generation botanical legacy.

Learn More

• Backlund, Anders (3 February 2006). "The Fries Family of Botanists". Uppsala University. See: https://web.archive.org/web/20071209081753/http://www.systbot.uu.se/information/history/fries.htm. 

• "Elias Fries, Swedish Botanist". Britannica website. Provides a brief biography of Fries' works. See: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elias-Fries.

• "Elias Magnus Fries". Wikipedia website. Provides a brief biography of Fries and a summary of publications and references. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elias_Magnus_Fries.

• "Elias Magnus Fries (1794 - 1878) - a brief biography". First Nature website. Provides an overview of Fries' works and publications. See: https://www.first-nature.com/fungi/~biog-fries.php.

• Eriksson, Gunnar (2018). "Fries, Elias Magnus". Encyclopedia website. Provides a biography of Fries' life and works, with more details than other internet articles. See: https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/science-and-technology/botany-biographies/elias-magnus-fries.

• Fries, Elias Magnus (Lund, 1831). Lichenographia Europaea Reformata. Survey of known lichens of Europe and information about their distribution. For the curious, see: https://archive.org/details/lichenographiaeu00frie/page/n3/mode/2up.

• Fries, Elias Magnus (Lund, 1821). Systema Mycologicum (three volumes), by (1821). Survey of known fungi and a new system for classifying them. The original is in Latin, but Volume 1 is available in English at: https://www.amazon.com/Systema-Mycologicum-Latin-Elias-Magnus/dp/1022345052 

• Rice, Miriam and Beebee, Dorothy 1980. Mushrooms for Color. Mad River Press, Inc. Eureka, CA. See the chapter "Identifying and Classifying Mushrooms for Color" by Dr. S. D. Libonati-Barnes, for references to Fries (primarily pages 60 - 62).