Dear mycologists and mushroom-lovers!

In 1980 Gary Laursen hosted an international symposium on arctic and alpine fungi in Point Barrow, the northernmost tip of Alaska. The symposium resulted in a report and since then it was repeated every 4th year in other arctic and alpine localities. We are very proud finally to be able to show the results of our participation in this and the subsequent expeditions where we continued to collect basidiomycetes.

You can read about the results in the seven volumes, of which the first three now are ready for downloading. Volume 1, Setting the Scene, describes the physical conditions in cold areas, such as climate, geography and biology for understanding the conditions of the fungi described in vols. 2-7. They are monographs of the different groups. Volume 2 (Rusts) and 3 (Smut Fungi and Jelly fungi) are now ready for a free download (see below). Two more volumes, 4 and 5, will be ready around the New Year 2025, and the final two in 2026.

The funga is expected to consist of c. 3500 pages covering ca. 1400 species of basidiomycetes. Each species is described in two pages. The first page includes the taxonomic position, 1) a photo, 2) info on name, 3) info on where and by whom it was collected, 4) the collector’s no. and the museum no., 5) a macroscopical description, 6) a microscopical description, 7) the habitat and 8) the distribution in arctic and alpine regions. On the second page, a map of the distribution in cold areas on the Northern Hemisphere is presented. One or more photos below the map show relevant microcharacters such as spores, cystidia and hyphae.

Keys to the species are found in the beginning of each volume.

We wish you a happy and fruitful reading!

Henning Knudsen, Torbjørn Borgen and Steen A. Elborne (editors)

Go to the overview of the seven volumes.