About "Water Colours of Fungi by Fritz Wohlfarth"

The Artist and the Virtual Gallery

Dr. Fritz Wohlfarth was born on January 11th, 1906, in Saalfeld (Thuringia, Germany). He studied at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and obtained a Ph.D. degree in chemistry and worked as a sales representative for a varnish company in Munich. In his spare time, he pursued his passion of painting nature, especially plants and fungi, a major interest that he continued after his retirement in the 1970s. Dr. Fritz Wohlfarth died on April 4th, 2005 in Kamsdorf (Thuringia, Germany) at the age of 99 years.

Since 1970, the SNSB – Botanische Staatssammlung München (M) has been housing a collection of 121 of Fritz Wohlfarth's water colours of fungi, which was databased and placed on-line in 2001. Additional drawings of fungi by Fritz Wohlfarth could be added in 2002 thanks to the generosity of the artist and with the help of Prof. Dr. A. Bresinsky (Regensburg) as an intermediary.

All together, over 1,900 paintings of all groups of macromycetes can now be presented online. Nearly all of the 800 species are native to Central Europe, and their identification and the taxonomic applicability of names have been verified wherever possible (below). The paintings are dated between 1952 and 1977, mounted on cardboard of standardized size, and numbered as well as annotated by the artist. Some include supplementary dried material of the respective fungus.

The Data Project and Service

The Database "Water Colours of Fungi by Fritz Wohlfarth" and – if not stated otherwise – its supporting files have been copyrighted © 2001–2024 by the SNSB – Botanische Staatssammlung München, Department of Mycology. Support is provided by the Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst.

The data base project "Water Colours of Fungi by Fritz Wohlfarth" was established by Dr. Dagmar Triebel, with technical assistance from Christine Stadtkus and Mareike Goetz, a temporary trainee at the SNSB – Botanische Staatssammlung. Ludwig Beenken verified identifications and taxonomic correctness of names. The project uses Diversity Workbench components developed within the framework of the GLOPP project and the GBIF-D Fungi & Lichens project. The ColdFusion webinterface was programmed by Wiltrud Spiesberger, Markus Weiß and Jan Ingenhaag, Botanische Staatssammlung München. The Generic Point Mapper (Canadian Biodiversity Information Facility) and Google Maps are used as web services to create dynamic maps.

You may search "Water Colours of Fungi by Fritz Wohlfarth" using a taxon name or parts of it. You do not need to add wild cards. The output comprises information on the originally cited taxon name as well as the one in current usage, locality data, collecting and dates of the painting; it also provides the relevant accession number of the Botanische Staatssammlung München.

"Water Colours of Fungi by Fritz Wohlfarth" is maintained and expanded by staff of the SNSB – Botanische Staatssammlung München. Notices of errors of any kind are much appreciated by the editorial staff at the SNSB – Botanische Staatssammlung München. Technical support is provided by the Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns, IT Center.