Matthew Edward Smith

Professor University of Florida

Gainesville FL

Matthew Smith's research is focused on fungal systematics, ecology and evolution. Smith is an expert on fungal biodiversity and mushrooms.

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Biography

Matthew E. Smith is a professor at the Department of Plant Pathology and the curator of the Fungarium at the Florida Museum of Natural History. Matthew teaches fungal biology, conducts research on fungal systematics, ecology and evolution and is responsible for identifying unknown fungi for a variety of Florida stakeholders. He has worked on fungi from several different major groups but much of his research has focused on the ecology and evolution of ectomycorrhizal fungi and on the biology of truffles. He has described several new genera of fungi and more than 50 new species, including several new truffles and truffle-like fungi.

Areas of Expertise

Mushroom Poisoning

Biodiversity

Mycorrhiza

Mycology

Fungal Biology

Truffles

Wood Decay

Mushrooms

Media Appearances

A Few Special Dogs Just Discovered 2 New Truffle Species in the US

Food & Wine online

2025-01-21

Who's a good boy? Apparently, the doggies working for Michigan State University (MSU) and the University of Florida are some of the best furball good boys and girls out there.

A Mushroom Grew in a Strange Place: The Side of a Frog

The New York Times print

2024-02-12

Over the summer, Lohit Y.T., a river and wetlands specialist at World Wildlife Fund-India, set off with his friends in the drizzly foothills of the Western Ghats in India. They had one goal: to see amphibians and reptiles.

You’ve heard of truffle pigs. Now get ready for truffle birds.

Popular Science online

2021-10-29

The subterranean fungi known as truffles are best known as human delicacy, often sniffed out with the help of trained pigs or dogs. But it turns out these shrooms are popular outside the mammalian world, too: two common birds in Patagonia are truffle hounds in their own right, according to a new study in Current Biology.

Articles

Salt Life: Salinity Drives Ectomycorrhizal Community Structure in the Endangered Pine Rocklands

Molecular Ecology

Karlsen-Ayala, et al.

2025-03-21

Pinus densa, an endemic and keystone tree in Florida's endangered pine rocklands ecosystem, faces increasing threats from sea level rise and salt intrusion. Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi are critical for pine recruitment and survival, yet their diversity and response to salinity in this ecosystem have been unstudied.

Tuber cumberlandense and T. canirevelatum, two new edible Tuber species from eastern North America discovered by truffle-hunting dogs

Mycologia

Sow, et al.

2024-10-31

Ectomycorrhizal fungi in the genus Tuber form hypogeous fruiting bodies called truffles. Many Tuber species are highly prized due to their edible and aromatic ascomata. Historically, there has been attention on cultivating and selling European truffle species, but there is growing interest in cultivating, wild-harvesting, and selling species of truffles endemic to North America. North America has many endemic Tuber species that remain undescribed, including some that have favorable culinary qualities.

Parvodontia relampaga sp. nov.: A Cystostereaceae fungal pathogen that is the causal agent of relampago blight of woody plants in Florida, USA

Fungal Biology

Paez, et al.

2024-05-01

Starting in the fall of 2019, mortality, blight symptoms, and signs of white fungal mycelia were observed on external host tissues of non-native landscape trees as well as numerous native trees, understory shrubs, and vines throughout northern and central Florida, USA. We determined that the fungus is an undescribed species of Basidiomycota based on morphological characteristics and DNA sequence analysis.