In 2001 Martha Christensen donated a collection of approximately 2229 cultures of original isolates of soil microfungi to the Northern Regional Research Laboratory (NRRL), now the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research (NCAUR), in Peoria, Illinois. These cultures are available for scientific research at no cost. All requests for cultures should be made directly to NCAUR at Peoria. You may order up to 12 cultures per request and a maximum of 24 cultures per year.

The culture collection consists of lyophilized isolates of soil microfungi in approximately 163 genera. There are three sub-collections:

1. Wisconsin Soil Fungi collection (WSF Series), consisting of cultures isolated by students of M. P. Backus, W. F. Whittingham and J. T. Curtis (Department of Botany, University of Wisconsin-Madison) in 1950 - 1965;
2. Daniel Mahoney collection (DM Series) (given to Martha Christensen by Daniel Mahoney), consisting of soil isolates from the Galapagos Islands and Ecuador;
3. Rocky Mountain Fungi collection (RMF Series), consisting of isolates from surveys conducted at the University of Wyoming in 1963 to 2001. Samples were collected using soils from approximately 80 sites in North America including 7 Long-term Ecological Research sites (LTER). Samples from about 48 sites in Europe, Asia, Africa and South America also are included in the RMF collection.
   
   

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   The image at the top of each page was taken by Jose Herrera. Jose has an extensive collection of microfungi images online. jherrera@truman.edu Many Thanks!