Martha Allen Sherwood

Sherwood was born on November 8, 1948 in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Her parents were University of Oregon professors John Sherwood and Irma Sherwood.^[1]

Sherwood studied at the University of Oregon and went on a field expedition to Guadeloupe in the French West Indies while a student. She achieved her PhD at Cornell University in 1977, working under Richard Korf.^[2] Her thesis work was on ostropalean fungi, which was published in the scientific journal Mycotaxon.^[3] As a post-doctoral position, Sherwood worked at the Farlow Herbarium of Cryptogamic Botany at Harvard University and with local amateur lichenologists.^[2]In 1979 she issued the exsiccata Phacidiales exsiccati.^[4]

Sherwood was a member of the Mycological Society of America (MSA) and edited the Society's journal newsletter from January 1979 to August 1980.^[2] Sherwood circumscribed the genus of Xerotrema with Brian John Coppins in 1980. The genus Marthamyces (within the Rhytismataceae family)^[5] is named after her.^[2][6]

Sherwood moved to England, where she worked at the University of Liverpool and contributed to the book The British Ascomycotina. An Annotated Checklist (Cannon et al. 1985).^[2][7] After returning to the United States, Sherwood married biologist and organic farmer Lawrence Herbert Pike and attended the Central Lutheran Church in Eugene, Oregon.^[1][2]

Sherwood worked in the Department of Biology at the University of Oregon.^[8] She collaborated with palaeobotanist Jane Gray on research about fossil fungi (published under the name Sherwood-Pike),^[2][9] interpreting fossilised faecal pellets containing fungal hyphae as implying the existence of a fungivorous microarthropod.^{[10][page needed]}

Sherwood died on October 19, 2020 in Eugene, Oregon, aged 71, after suffering from a stroke.^[2][1]

• Sherwood, M. A. (1977) The ostropalean fungi. Mycotaxon 5(1): 1–277.^[3]
• Hawksworth, D. L. & Sherwood, M. A. 1981. Proposals for Nomina Conservanda and Rejicienda for Ascomycete Names (Lichenized and Non-Lichenized). Taxon: The Journal of the International Association for Plant Taxonomy 30(1): 338–348.
• Hawksworth, D. L. and Sherwood, M. A. (1982) Two new families in the Ascomycomycotina. - Mycotaxon 16: 262–264. [Families: Ascodichaenaceae, Odontotremataceae]
• Sherwood, M.A. and Coppins, B. J. (1980) Xerotrema, a new genus of ondontotremoid fungus from Scotland. - Notes from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh 38: 367–371. [Xerotrema gen. nov.; X. megalospora sp. nov.]^[11]
• Sherwood, M. A., Hawksworth, D. L. and Coppins, B. J. (1980) Skyttea, a new genus of odontotremoid lichenicolous fungi. - Transactions of the British Mycological Society 75: 479–490. [Skyttea gen. nov., S. buelliae sp. nov., S. cruciata sp. nov., S. elachistophora (Nyl.) Sherw. & D. Hawksw., comb. nov.; S. fusispora sp. nov.; S. gregaria sp. nov.; S. nitschkei (Körber) comb. nov. and S. thallophila (P. Karsten) Sherw. & D. Hawksw., comb. nov.]
• Sherwood-Pike, M. (1985) New and unusual Ascomycetes from the western United States. - Sydowia II 38: 267–277. [Nanostictis pseudocyphellariae sp. nov., from Oregon.]
• Sherwood-Pike, M. A. (1987) The Ostropalean Fungi III: the Odontotremataceae. - Mycotaxon 28: 137–177.[Ocellularia concentricum (Stirton) comb. nov.; Paschelkiella gen. nov.; Phragmiticola gen. nov.; Odontotrema oregonense sp. nov.]