Index Fungorum has moved
The Index Fungorum database and web site has moved and is now based
at the Royal
Botanic Gardens Kew, a UK
non-departmental public body with exempt charitable status and
with over 250 years of scientific research on plants and fungi.
The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (via the Mycology
Section) represents one of the three Index Fungorum partners
together with Landcare
Research-NZ (the New Zealand Crown Research Institute for terrestrial biodiversity and land resources, managing the national fungal collection PDD)
and the Institute
of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Science. A consequence of this move is that our many users will have access to:
More protologue links via BHL: Index Fungorum
already has over 100,000 names linked to digitized images of the
protologue, in the publication where the name was first published.
The number of these links, critical for taxonomic and nomenclatural
research, will gradually increase by making use of the extensive
resources available in IPNI
(the botanical equivalent of Index Fungorum).
More links to digitized types: The type-rich Kew
fungarium (estimated to contain over 30,000 types) has an active
digitization programme (the current batch being digitized are the
rust fungi on legumes).
More links to barcodes (ITS sequences) from types:
Implemented via collaboration with the GenBank 'RefSeq' project.
More links from significant external resources:
Catalogue of Life, Encyclopedia of Life, GBIF, GenBank, UNITE, etc.
The Index Fungorum, the global fungal nomenclator coordinated and
supported by the Index
Fungorum Partnership, contains names of fungi (including yeasts,
lichens, chromistan fungal analogues, protozoan fungal analogues
and fossil forms) at all ranks.
As a result of changes to the ICN (previously ICBN) relating to
registration of names and following the lead taken by MycoBank,
Index Fungorum now provides a mechanism to register
names of new taxa, new names, new combinations and new typifications
— no login is required. Names registered at Index Fungorum
can be published immediately through the Index
Fungorum e-Publication facility — an authorized login
is required for this.
Species Fungorum is
currently an RBG Kew coordinated initiative to compile a global
checklist of the fungi. You may search systematically defined and taxonomically complete datasets - global
species databases - or the entire Species
Fungorum. Species Fungorum contributes the fungal component
to the Species
2000 project and, in partnership with ITIS,
to the Catalogue of Life
(currently used in the GBIF
and EoL portal); for more information
regarding these global initiative visit their websites. Please contact
Paul Kirk if you you would like
to contribute to Species Fungorum.
The
Dictionary of the Fungi (currently 10th edition, 2008) published
by CABI also contains
the current consensus on the fungal taxonomic hierarchy to the rank
of genus. You can search
the database for the status of generic names, or walk down the
hierarchy from the rank of Kingdom. The entries for each
genus generally include authors and place of publication together
with the type species (linked to Index Fungorum) and other data.
The Bibliography
of Systematic Mycology, compiled at CABI-UK and published by
CABI, provides
a survey of the literature encompassing the biodiversity, classification,
distribution, evolution, identification, nomenclature, phylogeny,
systematics and taxonomy of fungi (as defined in the first paragraph).
You can search
the database using the index of cited generic names or author
names.
All these databases need to be improved and updated in terms of
data content. Funding from GBIF
(2003-2004) under the ECAT work programme enabled the addition of
most missing author citations and year of publication and the linking
of most homotypic names. New names from the Index
of Fungi, compiled at CABI-UK and published by CABI,
are added every three months. In addition, names registered with
Fungal Names and MycoBank are incorporated in Index Fungorum as
they are released. Please contact Paul
Kirk if you have any additions or suggested changes (which will
be acknowledged). The database structures have been developed by
Jerry Cooper and Paul Kirk and the web interface by Jerry Cooper.
Please contact Paul Kirk if
you have any problems with pages or database searches.
NB. Searching the databases requires 'cookies' to be enabled
on your browser.
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