The fungal collections consist of ca. 330 000 objects and are housed in what we call a fungarium, a collection of dried fungi (as opposed to a herbarium, which is a collection of dried plants)
The collections consist mainly of dried fruiting bodies (=the part of the fungus one normally sees and collects) with associated collection information. The main bulk of our collections consist of Norwegian material and represents all fungal groups that we find in Norway. Polypores and corticoid fungi, as well as microfungi from the Canary Islands and the Arctic, make up a considerable part of our collections from other countries.
Other fungal collections in Norway are housed in Bergen (BG), Trondheim (TRH), Tromsø (TROM), and Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO) at Ås. Here you can search among all registered specimens in the Norwegian collections.
The fungarium in numbers
- Total number of specimens: ca. 330 000
- Geographic coverage: 167 countries
- The type collection: more than 1200 specimens
- The Nordic collection: ca. 250 000 specimens
- The General collection: ca. 50 000 specimens from other countries
- Fungi exsiccate: ca. 30 000 specimens in international exsiccata
- Digitized specimens: ca. 70 % (as of early 2022)
- Average growth over the past 20 years: ca. 3000 specimens/year
Important collectors
- Søren Chr. Sommerfelt (1794-1838; Coll. > 5 500 specimens)
- Ivar Jørstad (1886-1967; Coll. > 26 800 specimens)
- Jens Stordal (1917-2012; Coll. > 21 100 specimens)
- Finn-Egil Eckblad (1923-2000; Coll. ca. 6 300 specimens)
- Leif Ryvarden (1935-; Coll. > 26 100 specimens)
- Gro Gulden (1939-; Coll. > 13 000 specimens)
- Anna Elise Torkelsen (1938-; Coll. > 6 800 specimens)
Fungal research
Access to the fungarium
Are you a researchers or student with an interest in studying objects housed in the fungarium for your project? Or are you interested in contributing with collecting new objects? Through our collection portal, you will find information about most of our objects. Moreover, the collection guidelines provide important information for those planning to collect objects for deposition in the fungarium.
Associated personnel
- Mika Bendiksby, Professor
- Katriina Bendiksen, Head Engineer
Postal address
Fungarium O, Botany building
Natural History Museum, University of Oslo
P.O. BOX 1172 Blindern
NO-0318 Oslo
E-mail: mika.bendiksby@nhm.uio.no