MA-Fungi: the fungal herbarium in Madrid

Herbario MA at the Royal Botanic Garden in Madrid holds more than a million specimens, split between vascular plants and the cryptogam collections. The latter carry their own codes and their own counts: MA-Fungi holds seventy-six thousand six hundred and thirty-four fungal specimens, and MA-FunHist twenty-six thousand nine hundred and seventy-two historical ones. Beside them stand the lichens of MA-Lichen, seventeen thousand three hundred and seventy-six, the mosses of MA-Musci, thirty-two thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, and the liverworts of MA-Hepat, four thousand five hundred and forty-eight. Protists, including myxomycetes, are kept separately again.

Separating MA-Fungi from MA-FunHist is not a cataloguing whim. Historical material carries different evidential weight and a different risk of damage than a specimen collected in recent decades, so it gets a different access regime. In the general herbarium a researcher may pull material themselves, then hand it back to staff. Historical and separated collections are reached only with staff assistance.

The working rules are written down and specific. A visitor registers and signs the log. Taking material for destructive sampling requires written permission from the person responsible for the collections, and dissecting a specimen requires prior authorisation. Loans go to recognised botanical institutions, normally for up to six months.

The herbarium is open Monday to Friday, holidays excepted, from 8:00 to 15:00, all year round. Among European mycological collections that availability is the exception rather than the rule: most institutions admit visitors only once a date has been agreed in advance. The address is Plaza de Murillo 2, in the middle of Madrid, next door to the Prado.

The structure hidden behind one collection total

A 2021 GBIF Spain report listed 130,871 records in the combined MA-Fungi holdings. All were computerised, about 40% had coordinates, 74% of material came from Spain, and Basidiomycota accounted for 37.3%. These proportions expose both strengths and gaps: a record without coordinates may still carry useful locality text, while a specimen count is not a species count. Real Jardín Botánico's search interface has continued to update, so a current query may return more and should be cited with its date. Physical consultation, loans and sampling follow herbarium procedures; a garden ticket does not grant unrestricted collection access.