IMA Fungus 7(1): e33616, doi: 10.1007/BF03449412
Notable historical databases of fungal names
Ronald Petersen‡, David L. Hawksworth§‡ University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, United States of America§ Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Departamento de Biología Vegetal II, Facultad de Farmacia, Madrid, Spain
© Ronald Petersen, David Hawksworth. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits to copy and distribute the article for non-commercial purposes, provided that the article is not altered or modified and the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Petersen R, Hawksworth DL (2016) Notable historical databases of fungal names. IMA Fungus 7(1): e33616. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03449412 |  |
Abstract
Present-day electronic databases of fungal names are 21st century versions of previous compilations for the same purpose. The comprehensive indices attached to books by Persoon and Fries summarized names known at those times. Later compilations appeared piecemeal in journals or free-standing, always improving but hardly available for “rapid retrieval.” Twentieth century Index of Fungi required tedious data entry from thousands of journals over many years, but the result could later be inserted into electronically retrievable computer programs. Index Fungorum includes data harvested from Index of Fungi, but perhaps its major source has been Saccardo’s Sylloge Fungorum, probably the most prodigious compilation of the 19th–20th century. Names for lichen-forming fungi were gleaned from the catalogues of Zahlbruckner and Lamb. The role of the Commonwealth Mycological Institute, its predecessors and its successors, has been significant.
Keywords
compilations, nomenclators, name registration, Index Fungorum