Roy Watling

Roy Watling MBE, PhD., DSc, FRSE, F.I.Biol., C.Biol., FLS (born 1938) is a Scottish mycologist who has made significant contributions to the study of fungi both in identification of new species and correct taxonomic placement, as well as in fungal ecology.

Watling has served as the Head of Mycology and Plant Pathology as well as Acting Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh as well as a visiting professor at Ramkhamhaeng University in Bangkok, Thailand. He has been awarded a Patrick Neill Medal and an Outstanding Contribution to Nature Award from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. He is a member of the German, American, and Dutch Mycological Societies and of the North American Mycological Association. Since his retirement he has been active in leading fungal forays and education events for the youth in and around Edinburgh. He is a past president of the Botanical Society of Scotland from 1984 to 1986. In 1997 Watling received the honour of Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to science. In 1998, the Royal Society of Edinburgh awarded him the Neill Medal, a triennial distinction recognizing outstanding work by a Scottish naturalist.

While much of his work has been in identifying and expanding knowledge of fungi in the tropics, Watling has also done extensive research in much of the UK and North America. He is listed as an author of over 500 fungal taxa in the nomenclatural database MycoBank. An example of Watling's work in Scotland can be seen in a 1983 study detailing the fungal populations of the Hebrides; this study highlights how little is known of fungi in some isolated locations in the United Kingdom. Working along with R. W. G. Dennis, Watling published several papers adding to the 1,787 species of fungi located on the Island of Mull in the Inner Hebrides. The unique geographic composition of these islands, as well as limited human influence makes the Hebrides an interesting location for fungal diversity. His work in the Shetland Islands, Hebrides, and northern Scotland provides insight into distribution patterns of Russula, Laccaria, Inocybe, Cortinarius, Amanita nivalis, Omphalina alpina and Omphalina hudsoniana (as well as other taxa) in relation to climatic and geographical variance. This information was further updated with a publication in 1994 with his publication of the Fungus Flora of Shetland, and in 1999 publication of The Fungus Flora of Orkney. Further research into the alpine arctic relationship with fungi can be seen in his study of seven taxa of coprophilous fungi in the Falkland Islands.

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