This is the one essential handbook for all who work with or are interested in fungi (including lichens, slime moulds and yeasts). This new edition, with more than 20,500 entries, provides the most complete listing of generic names of and terms used to describe fungi available. For each genus, the authority, the date of publication, status, systematic position, number of accepted species, distribution, and key references are given. Diagnoses of families, orders and higher categories are included for most groups. In addition, there are biographic notes, information on well-known metabolites and mycotoxins, and broad accounts of almost all pure and applied aspects of the subject (including citations of important literature). All information has been updated as necessary since the publication of the eighth edition in 1995. In addition the ninth edition has the following new features: a refined classification of fungal phyla reflecting the latest molecular evidence, including a major revision of the classification of the Ascomycota; a full integration of anamorphic genera in the classification; a revised synopsis of the proposed classification.