Snow Mold Fungi

Abstract

Snow mold fungi include a diverse group of fungi and are not confined to a specific taxon, since they can be found in the Basidiomycota, Ascomycota, and even the non-fungal Oomycota. We cannot directly observe the process of pathogenesis under snow cover, but do see the consequences of infection after snowmelt to gain inferences about the infection process. Such difficulties of direct observation seem to hinder their ecological characterization. However, investigations on snow cover conditions facilitate ecological characterization since snow mold fungi depend almost exclusively on snow cover for survival. Each pathogen may specialize locally both ecologically and pathologically, giving rise to taxonomic confusion because of the scarcity of comparative studies. The confusion has been addressed through mating studies and the development of molecular analysis techniques. In this chapter, we emphasized more on what snow mold fungi do (ecology) than what they are (taxonomy).