According to modern taxonomy, all living organisms are divided into three domains: Archea (archaea), Bacteria (bacteria), and Eucarya (Eukaryotes). Fungi as water moulds will then belong to the eukaryotes along with animals, plants and protists (simple, usually unicellular organisms). According to another classification system, the living organisms are divided into a number of different kingdoms. Regardless of these two systems, fungi are further divided into subkingdoms, which in turn are divided into different phyla (also called divisions). The subject area,which deals with fungi is called mycology. Professor Elias Fries, who was active in Lund and Uppsala in the 19th century, is considered to be the founder of modern mycology.
The classification of fungi has been changed several times as more knowledge becomes available and is likely to be revised further in the near future. The fungi are for the moment divided into 8 different phyla and of these are the following three of particular importance in agriculture and veterinary medicin: Ascomycota (sac fungi), Basidiomycota (club fungi) and Chytridiomycota (chytrids).
The database AgriMyc contains information about species (and subspecies) of importance in agriculture and veterinary mycology. Many of them also have human medical significance. As other living organisms, fungi are affiliated to different genera and you can click on Genus to select a genus from the alphabetical list. If you do not find the fungus you are looking for by clicking on the taxonomy line, do a free text search in the database by using the search function on the left. There is often more than one approved name for one and the same fungus and it is not certain that the name you want to use is the main name of the fungus in AgriMyc, however, the synonyms are included on each fungus page. Enter just a few letters from the word/name you are looking for; there is no need to enter a complete word.
You can click on an arbitrary taxonomic level (Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus) in the taxonomy line below to view the groups that are included in AgriMyc and you can then click on a specific category. For example, if you first clicked on "Order", you can then click on a specific order such as Eurotiales to list the categories at the level below, in this case families.
The main information on AgriMyc concerns microscopic fungi and thus not for example edible mushrooms.
