TOWARDS A VIRTUAL-REALITY FOR PLANT-ASSOCIATED FUNGI IN THE UNITED-STATES AND CANADA

At present knowledge of fungal biodiversity in North America is scatte red in diverse sources ranging from well-reviewed, comprehensive datab ases to unedited databases of reports from the literature, information on file cards, and uncomputerized reference collections. Resources av ailable electronically were used to determine their relative importanc e in evaluating the plant-associated fungi known from the United State s and to a lesser extent Canada. The results demonstrate that the lite rature provides the greatest information but that reference collection s in the US National Fungus Collections contribute between 22-31 % add itional data. Little overlap exists between fungi isolated as endophyt es and those reported in the literature or as reference collections. E ighty to 100 % of the plant-associated fungi reported from Canada are accounted for in comprehensive resources for the United States. A comp rehensive database of plant-associated fungi in Canada, the United Sta tes, and eventually Mexico would serve as a valuable resource for thos e making plant quarantine decisions.