Welcome to the Kew Mycology Collection - online database

The Fungarium at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew contains the largest collection of dried fungi in the world. Together with the CABI collection [collection code IMI], it contains about 1.25 million specimens, including the British National Collections (ca. 300,000 specimens), approximately 50,000 types, and other specimens from over 240 countries on all seven continents. The collection was founded in 1879 with the donation of 20,000 specimens from the Rev. Miles J. Berkeley, and continues to grow by about 3-4,000 accessions each year. Many important historical specimens are maintained in the Fungarium, including specimens collected by Charles Darwin during his voyage on the H.M.S. Beagle. More information on the collections is available here. These collections remain the focus of much active collections-based research pursued by the Kew Mycology Team (further information is available on the Science Directory).

This site is a portal to the internal database (Herbtrack) for the collections that have been accessioned to Kew [herbarium code K(M)]. Searching the CABI collection (HerbIMI) is available here. Integration of these two databases will occur in the near future. Simple searches can be initiated from this page. Please refer to the help pages for advice as to how to formulate database queries. Advanced search options are also available by clicking on the 'More Search Options' button. Quality of data with regard to the presence of a taxon in any particular country varies from 'high' where the record is based on material of known provenance to 'low' where a record is based on, for example, a quarantine intercept where the exact origin of the material is not available. Information in the database should not be regarded as definitive proof of the presence of a species in a particular country. Please contact us (mycology@kew.org) if you have enquiries about the records, to request a loan, or if you have any ideas as to how we can improve this site.