The New York Botanical Garden has begun the process of hosting specimen data from other institutions. The GENT herbarium's fungal type collection is the first set of hosted data to be freely made searchable on the Garden's web site. All inquiries about the data and specimens should be directed to Prof. Dr. A. Verbeken (mieke.verbeken@rug.ac.be).

The fungus herbarium of GENT (Belgium) comprises approximately 25,000 specimens. Historical collections consist of some "published herbaria" of cryptogams of Belgium and Northern France:

Other old collections were made by Prof. Van Bambeke C. (1829-1918, mainly local Gasteromycetes and Aphyllophorales s.l.) and Prof. Verplancke J.P.J. (1898-1964, mainly plant pathogens of both wild and locally cultivated plants). More recently, collections of macrofungi and myxomycetes of Belgium were built up by both staff members and local amateur mycologists. An active collecting program in Papua New Guinea carried out in the nineties concentrated on polypores and Xylariaceae. Some collecting was also done in Central Africa and Zimbabwe. At present, emphasis is made on the study of the genus Lactarius (world-wide) and microfungi on Phragmites australis (local).

Curator: Prof. Dr. A. Verbeken, mieke.verbeken@rug.ac.be
Collaborator: Ruben Walleyn.