Plant Pathogenic Fungi

The Fungarium of the Zurich HerbariaZ+ZT contains an outstanding collection of plant pathogenic fungi, including approximately 60,000 specimens of rust fungi, 11,000 smut fungi, 8,000 powdery mildews, and around 7,000 downy mildews, along with several thousand parasitic ascomycetes from various orders (Fig.1). The collection includes material from the University of Bern, as well as important specimens gathered by Eduard Fischer, Ernst Gäumann, Eugène Mayor, Emil Müller (primarily ascomycetes), Kálmán Vánky (primarily smut) and Reinhard Berndt (primarily rust).

Figure 1: Distribution of taxa of plant pathogenic fungi holdings in the Fungarium Z+ZT (>80,000 specimens, ~ 5,000 Names, ~ 280 Genera)

These collections were catalogued, digitized and made available to scientists and the public as part of a series of research and digitization projects led by the former curator, Dr. Reinhard Berndt. Over 80,000 specimens were inventoried, and more than 1,000 new type specimens located. The collections are accessible online via the Fungarium's public database(NAHIMA)
Type specimens were subjected to deep digitization, so in addition to photos of the labels (Fig.2A), which are provided for all specimens, photos of the affected plant parts (Fig.2B-C) and the microscopic structures (Fig.2D-E) are also provided online, showing the characters essential for species identification.

An important output of these digitization efforts is the Checklist of Rust Fungi in Switzerland, comprising 551 species, a preliminary red list, and a rust-host index.

Figure 2: Digitized type specimen of Puccinia thuemeniana W. Voss. A Specimen label; B Macroscopic image of entire type specimen and zoomed in on C affected stems and leaves of the host Myricaria germanica; D Microscopic image of urediniospores, E Microscopic image of teliospores.