The aim of this study is to analyze the botanist Elias Magnus Fries legacy between 1970 until today. The focus is on the Swedish medias interest in Fries, as well as how he and his name has been utilized during this period. Departing from theories on history culture and uses of history, the Swedish national newspapers Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter, Expressen and Svenska Dagbladet are analyzed. The study shows when and how the memory of Elias Magnus Fries has been activated and portrayed in Swedish media, as well as if they used Fries as a kind of national symbol. During the 1970’s the interest was at its peak but dwindled after the 90’s probable due to the lack of jubilee celebration. Indeed, the interest of Fries peaked during the 70’s and 90’s because of celebrating the 100-year celebration of his death in 1878 and the 200 anniversary of his birth in 1794. Although, the general view of Fries persona always has been positive, rather scant attention har been devoted to Fries during the entire period and he was often only mentioned briefly. The interest was in general primarily on mushrooms rather than Fries, and it was always the mushrooms that spurred an interest in Fries rather than the other way around. This might indicate a rather weak position in the history of science within Swedish media. Nevertheless, the newspapers also depicted Fries as a kind of national educator, scientist and a person with a great an evolutionistic mind for his great interest in mushrooms and its introduction in the Swedish cuisine.

Population studies have become important tools in conservation biology and genetic analyses are used to investigate genetic diversity within and among populations. Genetic variation can help improve fitness and ecological resilience. However, knowledge about genetic diversity is scarce for most wild species in Sweden. Insight in genetic population structure, can help us understand a species ́ ecological traits and improve species conservation. Fungi are fundamental components in terrestrial ecosystems, yet they have gotten little attention in conservatory work in Europe. In my bachelor thesis, by a short literature review and GIS- analysis of species occurrence data, I have developed a sampling scheme for a conservatory, genetic population study of the threatened pig’s ear mushroom, Gomphus clavatus. The population study aims to investigate genetic structures of the pig’s ear mushroom, in Sweden and surrounding countries. I collected occurrence data from nine countries and processed a total of 3232 findings, which were all compiled in Arcmap. A preliminary selection of localities in Sweden was made through identifying around twenty localities with recent findings, in protected areas. Eight localities of particular interest were included in the selection, one location with findings of morphologically divergent specimens were among those localities. For the surrounding countries, the preliminary selection included localities with findings reported between years 2015–2020. In my literature review, previous studies were not comparable in a way that could guide the design of a sampling scheme for the pig ́s ear mushroom. For clonal species, one should prioritize the total number of localities rather than the number of samples per site, and vice versa for sexually reproducing species. Since the pig ́s ear mushroom belongs in both groups, I suggest a combination of higher density sampling efforts at two localities, together with single sampling at a greater number of geographically distributed localities.