Ladislav Hagara (born January 15, 1944) is a Slovak

mycologist Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungi, including their taxonomy, genetics, biochemical properties, and use by humans. Fungi can be a source of tinder, food, traditional medicine, as well as entheogens, poison, and ...

, writer and author of mycological publications. He held the position of the Chairman of the Slovak Mycological Society of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, and described a new fungal species variety.

Biography

Hagara graduated in journalism at the Faculty of Arts of the Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia in 1968. However he was banned from pursuing his profession as a journalist on ideological grounds—based on articles he wrote protesting the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, he was registered as a "hostile person" by the ŠtB secret police. Instead he worked as an editor and a director of a publishing house. In 2003, he successfully defended his dissertation on the topic of ''The Hyphodontia Genus in Slovakia (

Basidiomycota Basidiomycota () is one of two large divisions that, together with the Ascomycota, constitute the subkingdom Dikarya (often referred to as the "higher fungi") within the kingdom Fungi. Members are known as basidiomycetes. More specifically, Basi ...

Corticiaceae The Corticiaceae are a family of fungi in the order Corticiales. The family formerly included almost all the corticioid (patch- or crust-forming) fungi, whether they were related or not, and as such was highly artificial. In its current sense, ...

)''. His

mushroom A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing Sporocarp (fungi), fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or another food source. ''Toadstool'' generally refers to a poisonous mushroom. The standard for the n ...

field guide A field guide is a book designed to help the reader identify wildlife (flora or fauna or funga) or other objects of natural occurrence (e.g. rocks and minerals). It is generally designed to be brought into the " field" or local area where suc ...

s have sold over half a million copies across more than 35 editions (in addition to Slovak also in Czech, French, German, Dutch and Hungarian), and include ''Otto's Encyclopedia of Mushrooms'', a field guide to mushrooms growing in the territory of Slovakia and Czechia, containing 4,200 photographs and descriptions of 3,230 species. The Slovak names of more than 1000 of these species were created by Hagara. As a part of his mycological scientific research, he has collected and processed more than 15,000

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant biological specimen, specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sh ...

specimen of mushrooms. In 1990 he described and published a new variety of

Infundibulicybe gibba ''Infundibulicybe gibba'' (also known as ''Clitocybe gibba''), and commonly known as the common funnel or funnel cap, is a species of gilled mushroom which is common in European woods. Taxonomy The epithet ''gibba'' comes from the Latin adject ...

var. adstringens. The standard author abbreviation ''Hagara'' is used to indicate this person as the author when

citing A citation is a reference to a source. More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression embedded in the body of an intellectual work that denotes an entry in the bibliographic references section of the work for the purpose o ...

botanical name A botanical name is a formal scientific name conforming to the ''International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN) and, if it concerns a plant cultigen, the additional cultivar or cultivar group, Group epithets must conform t ...

. He has also published several photo books about mushrooms. He is a member of the Slovak Writers' Society. In 1998 he became the chairman of the

Mushroom Research Society A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or another food source. ''Toadstool'' generally refers to a poisonous mushroom. The standard for the name "mushroom" is t ...

, he is a member (and between 2015 and 2018 the chairman) of the Slovak Mycological Society of the

Slovak Academy of Sciences The Slovak Academy of Sciences (, or SAV) is the main scientific and research institution in Slovakia fostering basic and strategic basic research. It was founded in 1942, closed after World War II, and then reestablished in 1953. Its primary ...

, as well as a member of mycological societies in Czechia, Austria and Germany. Hagara has also written several

social-justice Social justice is justice in relation to the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society where individuals' rights are recognized and protected. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has ofte ...

-themed short stories, and novels set in Slovak research institutions.

Publications

Fiction

* ''Matej Hrebenda: Vlastný životopis'' = Matej Hrebenda: Biography (1976) * ''Kroky času'' = The Steps of Time (1979) * ''Arzén'' = Arsenic (1984) * ''Slnovrat'' = Solstice (1987) * ''Blíženci'' = Gemini (1990) * ''Uzly'' = Knots (1990)

Mycological works

* ''Atlas húb'' = Field Guide of Mushrooms (1987) * ''Huby dvojníky'' = Mushroom Doubles (1992) * ''Veľký atlas húb'' = The Great Field Guide of Mushrooms (2005) by Hagara, Jiří Bajer, and Vladimír Antonín * ''Huby – Atlas'' = Mushrooms – A Field Guide (2006) * ''Ottova encyklopédia húb'' = Otto's Encyclopedia of Mushrooms (2014) * ''Huby – Atlas jedlých húb s osvedčenými receptami'' = Mushrooms – A Field Guide of Edible Mushrooms with Proven Recipes (2018) by Hagara, Oldřich Jindřich, and Aleš Vít

Awards

* 1984: Slovak Literary Fund Award for the novel ''Arzén'' = Arsenic * 1985: Golden Medal of the Slovak Women's Federation for the novel ''Arzén'' = Arsenic

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hagara, Ladislav 1944 births Living people Slovak mycologists Slovak non-fiction writers Slovak novelists Slovak photographers