James Trappe
| James Martin Trappe | |
|---|---|
| Born | Spokane, Washington, USA |
| Residence | USA |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Fields | Mycology, Forestry |
| Doctoral advisor | Daniel Elliot Stuntz |
| Known for | Researching Truffles |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | Trappe |
James Martin Trappe (born 1931) is a mycologist and expert in the field of North American truffle species. He has authored or co-authored 450 scientific papers and written three books on the subject. MycoBank lists him as either author or co-author of 401 individual species, and over the course of his career he has helped guide research on mycorrhizal fungi, and reshaped truffle taxonomy: establishing a new order, two new families, and 40 individual genera.
Trappe first encountered truffles in the wild in the late 1950s during his Ph.D. thesis research. Since then Trappe has become widely regarded as one of the foremost experts on truffles in the world. In his search for truffle specimens he has collected on "every continent except Africa and Antarctica".
Trappe has also been keenly interested in the role that mycorrhizal fungi (which many truffles are) in natural environments. As early as his undergraduate tenure he was doing work on the subject, and his PhD thesis was to monograph Cenococcum graniforme, one of the most ubiquitous and promiscuous mycorrhizal symbiotes on the planet. However, more notable in his early career was his pioneering compilation of mycorrhizal fungi, which is “one of the most cited papers in mycorrhizal research”. In his postdoctoratal research he elucidated the mycorrhizal causes of poor colonization and growth by Pseudotsuga menziesii in soils without enough mycorrhizal symbiotes present in the area. To date he is one of the major voices in mycorrhizal research, particularly with respect to its application to forestry.
Trappe started studying nature very early on in his life. From as young as age five his family would head out into the woods for picnics with family friends that were foresters in the Spokane, WA area or as far abreast as the close reaches of Idaho. “[My dad’s friend] just made the whole forest come alive.” Trappe recounted in one interview.
Trappe attended the University of Washington, where he received his bachelor's degree in Forest Management. Later in his career he went on to get his Masters at the State University of New York in the same field before returning to the University in Washington to work on his PhD with Daniel Elliot Stuntz (a renowned expert on Inocybe), which he received in 1962. During his dissertation work Trappe started employment at the USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station at La Grande, Oregon, where he worked for two years before transferring to the Portland station in 1958. Trappe’s thesis on Cenococcum graniforme was established along with his comprehensive compilation of ectomycorrhizal fungi (the first of its kind).
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