Crab-of-the-Woods, Sulphur Polypore, Sulphur Shelf, Chicken-of-the-Woods

This illustration of Laetiporus sulphureus, or Crab-of-the-woods, is one of 163 original watercolors in the four-volume manuscript for Illustrations of British Mycology, an 1847 work by Anna Maria Hussey and her sister, Frances Reed. The sisters traveled the countryside of Kent, England to collect their samples, which they painted and described in a humorous, detailed commentary. Hussey’s accomplishments in mycology were often met with resistance due to her gender. In her correspondence with leading contemporary mycologist Reverend M. J. Berkeley, Hussey remarked: “I am always under the uncomfortable impression that the thing that I am doing is not the right thing to be doing.” The fungi Husseia (now Calostoma) was named in her honor by Berkeley.