"Exsiccata" in its specific sense means a uniform set of numbered dried specimens with printed labels. An exsiccata usually has a title, the labels are published in a small journal "Schedenheft" and it is distributed to major reference collections since 1993.

The "Microfungi Exsiccati" is such a set distributed by the Botanische Staatssammlung München. The series started in 1991, issued by Dagmar Triebel, technically assisted by Diane Falkenberg. The exsiccata is devoted to microfungi of all phylogenetic groups and includes fungi that have been collected rarely before and which are scarcely represented in the herbaria: Ascomycetes with small ascomata, Myxomycetes, Oomycetes, phytopathogenic Basidiomycetes; furthermore corticioid and tremelloid Basidiomycetes, as well as mitosporic fungi. The material is derived from nearly all continents (see map 1) and has been revised by international specialists.

Each collection of Microfungi exsiccati comprises twenty duplicate specimens. Meanwhile, the material pool comprises more than 850 different taxa (c. 17,000 specimens), 550 taxa (11,000 specimens) of these have been handed out already. The material is dispensed on an exchange basis to selected general or national herbaria in a number of countries (actually to the herbaria B, BPI, CBG, DAOM, FH, GZU, H, HMAS, IMI, LE, M, MA, MJ, TNS, UPS, ZT).

The labels and notes to the specimens, as well as short communications referring in some kind to the distributed material are published in the journal Arnoldia (ISSN 0940-8371). The publication language of the labels is English. The label information follows TDWG standards. The schedae give the fungus name with authority, order placement, collection locality (sorted hierarchically from the respective country upwards to the exact collection site), longitude and latitude co-ordinates, altitude, habitat, ecology, host and substratum, date of collection, collector, identifier, reviser and supplementary dates as to associated fungi as well as other relevant information.

Meanwhile, a number of contributions by various authors, all referring to material distributed in Microfungi Exsiccati, are published in Arnoldia. Type material of certain new taxa was distributed. One collection (no. 236: Acremonium arxii W. Gams) is also deposited as culture strain in Utrecht (CBS no. 119.96). Since the samples are mostly rather recent ones, they have already gained importance as a material pool for molecular and ultrastructural studies in our own working group on erysiphalean, leotialean and lichenicolous fungi as well as in other working groups.