Royal Ontario Museum Fungarium (TRTC)

The Royal Ontario Museum Fungarium (TRTC) was originally founded at the University of Toronto around 1887 under the name of “The Cryptogamic Herbarium”. The real development of the herbarium began in 1928 with the appointment of Dr. H.S. Jackson as head of the Department of Botany at the University of Toronto. Under Dr. Jackson’s leadership, later followed by Dr. R.F. Cain, and in association with their students, the Fungarium underwent a period of major expansion. Active development was continued by Dr. J.C. Krug and as a result, the herbarium has grown from about 500 collections in 1928 to its present holding estimated to be about half a million specimens. The collections and their responsibility were transferred to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in June 1996. The TRTC is richest in Canadian material but has a worldwide representation. It holds many unique specimens (including approximately 1,000 Types) obtained from private herbaria, fieldwork by University of Toronto and ROM scholars, and also to some extent by local amateurs. An active exchange program with other herbaria has also added many exotic specimens to the collection, including 81 different sets of Exsiccatae from a variety of North American, European, and Asian sources. Its present holdings make TRTC one of the largest and most significant fungal repositories in North America with a wide taxonomic representation that covers all major groups of fungi and slime molds. The Royal Ontario Museum Fungarium is still active and continues to grow its collections under the direction of Dr. Jean-Marc Moncalvo.