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The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was promoted by SandyGeorgia 22:13, 25 January 2010 [1].

Chorioactis

[edit]
Nominator(s): Sasata (talk) 16:53, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
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My latest FAC submission features a rare fungus, found only in Texas and Japan, that hisses and blows smoke (sort of). It is as comprehensive as I can make it without learning Japanese (although I'd like to thank the Japan wikiproject for some help with translation). Thanks for reading. Disclosure: I'm in the WikiCup Sasata (talk) 16:53, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Comments from J Milburn

This one seems to have changed a lot since last time I read it... Different pictures, for a start :) Great work with the pictures- the maps are a great addition, and the new lead picture is excellent.

  • Category:Monotypic fungi genera (added)
  • "splits open in a star-like fashion" It's not the splitting that is starlike, but the shape, surely? (fixed - this was my poor translation of the original jargon phrase "stellate dehiscence")
  • "called kirinomitake (キリノミタケ) after its resemblance to the seed pods of the Empress tree." Doesn't mean much to me... Is the Empress tree known as kirino in Japanese, or something? (removed the detail from the lead, but explained the kiri reference in the text and figure caption)
  • "clarified our understanding" Avoid self references? (removed "our understanding of")
  • "by Heald and Wolf (1910)[5] and Seaver (1928, 1942)," Other mycologists are given their full names.# (all full names given now, with redlinks; will make articles for these guys soon, as redlinks bug me. Oddly, they're all named Fred.)
  • "tribe Sarcosomateae" A link would be good, or, if not, a link to our articles on tribes. (linked tribe)
  • "C. geaster is the only member of the monotypic genus Chorioactis.[17]" Not certain this fits- the issue has already been discussed. I admit that a nice concluding line about the status of the species would be good, but the focus of the sentence is the species, not the genus, despite the fact the title of the article suggests it is about the genus. (you're right, it just repeats what's already been said - now removed)
  • "American mycologist Seaver commented" Seaver has already been introduced, and, again, I don't really like the way we refer to him only by surname. (fixed)
  • "In 1997, Texan state Senator Chris Harris filed a bill to make C. geaster the official state fungus of Texas;[19] the bill passed the Senate but did not succeed in the House.[20]" Do we have an article on state fungi? If not, a link to the article about symbols of Texas may fit... (linked to the latter. A list article on the former would be interesting, will dig around and see how many states have one)
  • "In Japan the mushroom is called kirinomitake (キリノミタケ), because the immature, unopened fruit body bears some resemblance to the seed pods of the Empress tree (Paulownia tomentosa).[21]" Again, I'm not seeing this. It's like saying "They named their daughter Evelyn, after Dolly Parton". (fixed per above)
  • "fruit body (technically an apothecium)," Implies that an apothecium is not a fruiting body- is this the case? (I just removed the parenthetical information, as it's just introducing jargon that's not used again in the article)
  • "the characteristic shape of the unopened fruit body, as well as the smoky spore release give the fungus its common name "Devil's cigar"" Sort of contradicts what has already been said- before, the tone of the article was very "who knows why it's called that?" but now there seems to be some certainty. Perhaps some counter-quotes from different mycologists would be interesting? (I've added a ref that correlates the fungus appearance and behavior with the common name with certainty. Didn't mean to imply doubt about the name origin with the Seaver quote, but was rather trying to add some flavor to the text. Will think about how to rejig the prose introducing the quote.)
  • "Dehiscence is accompanied by a hissing sound, an auditory phenomenon known to occur in about fifteen other fungal species." That's awesome. Does it have a name? I'd love to see an article on that... (No technical name that I'm aware of, but I agree a list article about fungi that make sounds would be cool... will look into it.)
  • "filamentous" link? (wikt'd)
  • "other species in the genus Kumanasamuha." Why "other"? It's not technically a member of the genus itself... (removed "other")
  • "dead oak trees." The linked article is about oak trees, not dead ones specifically. (improved pipe)
  • "between October to April," October AND April, surely? (ya)

I think this article's fantastic. There were several extremely interesting sections- the odd distribution, the details of dehiscence, the state fungus bill, the anamorph form... It's very well written, comprehensive and compelling. It's also very well illustrated and researched. A great read. J Milburn (talk) 23:22, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks kindly for your helpful comments. I particularly like how this article started out as a one shot contribution by an anon fungus fan. I hope (s)he comes back sometime and sees how their contribution has grown :) Sasata (talk) 03:32, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Is it possible to recolour one of the maps so they have the same colour scheme (not a big deal, but looks better)
I'll see what I can do.. there must be some easy way to change colors, I just need to figure out how. Sasata (talk) 15:39, 4 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
How about this and this, colored according to WikiProject Maps Conventions? Fvasconcellos (t·c) 18:05, 11 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Awesome! I did not know there were map conventions. Thanks for doing that, Fvasconcellos. I probably would have spent an hour figuring out how to do it, then would have gotten the colors wrong :) Sasata (talk) 18:46, 11 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • For completeness, can you add the source of the mapped data to the two image files for the maps?
Done. Sasata (talk) 15:39, 4 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comments (Another week, another fungus... of course, its so cold here I don't have any fungi growing in my barn, the manure pile is frozen solid!) -
  • Current ref 5 (Seaver 1928) needs a page number (done)
  • Current ref 29 (Rare ...) needs a publisher. What makes this a reliable source? (Anything where the website's domain name is pinktenticle.com is going to have some issues with reliability without something else offsetting that!) (I ditched this source as I found the conference abstract which this source was citing.)
  • Current ref 32 (Mims..) needs a publisher (done - this source is a reprint of his science column that appeared in the Seguin Gazette-Enterprise)
  • Current ref 33 (Forest.mims) needs a publisher. What makes this a reliable source? (I removed this one, it was extraneous)
  • Current ref 34 (Jones..) needs a publisher. What makes this a reliable source? (I have replaced this with something more reliable, a conference abstract that supports the statement.)
Otherwise, sources look okay, links checked out with the link checker tool. Ealdgyth - Talk 17:38, 6 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for checking, Ealdgyth. Sasata (talk) 04:09, 8 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comments Support (moral or otherwise) as wikiproject fungi member. I am reading through now. I did wonder about expanding Kyushu to "The Japanese Island of Kyushu" in the lead but hadn't realised it was the third largest island (never known much about Japanese geography..). Anyway. Will jot any queries below. I am reduced to minor non-deal-breaker quibbles. Article looks great. Casliber (talk · contribs) 19:41, 9 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
In the distribution section, I wonder if it is worth noting the distribution in Texas is disjunct (due to suitable habitat?).
I added the sentence "Travis and Guadalupe counties are in central Texas, while the remainder are clustered together in the northeastern part of the state.", but I don't really know anything about their habitats (nor do the sources mention) so I left out any speculation. Thanks for your support. Sasata (talk) 16:33, 11 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.
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