U.S. National Fungus Collections at Beltsville

The U.S. National Fungus Collections, with the herbarium code BPI, operate at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland. The USDA gives about a million collections, tens of thousands of taxa and around 25,000 type specimens. Fungi associated with plants, pathogens, and materials used in diagnostics and quarantine play a particular role. BPI holds dried specimens; it is not a collection of living cultures.

The collection serves to compare material with publications and names. Data for many groups is available through a search interface, and a researcher can prepare a list of numbers before a visit or a formal loan request. Shipment of material has limits and takes place between recognised institutions. Types and historic specimens are protected more strongly, because sampling and damage are irreversible.

A visit requires prior contact with the herbarium at HerbariumBPI@ars.usda.gov. The federal campus is a closed facility: anyone without a USDA identity card has to collect a photo pass from building 003. Official pass-office hours are given as Monday to Friday, 8:00–16:30, but they are not an automatic confirmation of access to the collection.

The laboratory address is Building 010A, Room 230, 10300 Baltimore Avenue, Beltsville, MD 20705. The details were verified on 30 July 2026. A visitor should agree a host, a list of materials, rules on photography and accessibility needs. For an ordinary tourist this is not a museum for spontaneous visiting. Its value lies in the fact that a decision about a name or a pathogen can be referred back to a physical, documented specimen.

A request to visit should state the institution, the research question, specimen identifiers and the intended work. Material under quarantine or other restrictions does not become freely available merely because it appears in a catalogue. In fieldwork, fresh, unreported samples should not be sent without instructions from BPI. This profile helps to plan lawful contact with the collection; it does not replace a permit for biological transport or a loan agreement.

One million specimens and a working library

The U.S. National Fungus Collections (BPI) hold about one million specimens representing roughly 65,000 taxa, including some 25,000 types. Supporting resources include nearly 5,600 books and 75,000 pamphlets and reprints. These collections were built chiefly for systematics, plant-disease diagnosis and agricultural history; they are neither a public exhibition nor a desk for declaring mushrooms edible. Online search can locate a record, but older data may still require checking the label and physical voucher. A research visit, loan or use of material must be arranged with USDA in advance and tied to a defined project.