Fungi have historically been underrepresented in the official Red Lists for Great Britain. Currently, only one non-lichenised fungal group, the Boletaceae, has an officially approved Red List based on IUCN criteria (Ainsworth et al. 2013). A provisional and unofficial assessment (Evans 2006) also included rusts and smuts, but this is now considerably out of date.
Natural England is currently supporting new Red List assessments for myxomycetes, grassland fungi, and an expanded review of the Boletales, lichens, and lichenicolous fungi. We now have an opportunity to begin this process for rusts and smuts, and a small steering group is working to support this initiative.
Contribute Your Records
A key early step is to compile all available distributional data. Some records are already accessible via national and regional databases, and more will be extracted from iRecord and other biological recording platforms. Published sources will also be used where possible. However, we know that many valuable records remain in private datasets or inaccessible formats, and we would like to include as many of these as possible.
You can contribute in any of the following ways (listed from easiest for us to access):
Add your records to FRDBI Please use a CC-BY (or less restrictive) licence to ensure they can be used for the Red List.
Email electronic data (spreadsheet, database, text file, document, etc.) to Paul Smith: pas.vc110@gmail.com
If your data is in proprietary software, please check with Paul first or export to a standard format.Paper records If you cannot digitise them, please contact Paul to discuss format and approximate quantity.
Whichever route you choose, please let Paul know what you plan to contribute, along with a rough estimate of the number of records.
What to Include
✔ All rust and smut taxa, including common species
✔ Host plant information where available
✔ Records from outside the Red List area (e.g. Ireland, Isle of Man, Channel Islands) as these can still contribute to scientific use and mapping
✘ Do not submit records that are already held in national databases
Recording common species is just as important as rare ones: widespread taxa provide essential context on recording effort and help detect real declines in formerly common species.
Taxonomy note: Rust and smut taxonomy in Britain is currently changing. Recent work by the Welsh Parasitic Microfungus Group (see Woods et al. 2024) broadly follows Klenke & Scholler (2015), aligning the British approach with European taxonomy. This means some identifications may rely on host specificity, further emphasising the importance of host data.
“Smuts” is used here in the broad sense, including Microbotryaceae and Entorrhizomycota.
If necessary, sensitive site details for very rare species can be protected.
Data on rusts and smuts affecting crops would be particularly valuable, as these are often under-recorded in national datasets.
Deadlines
31 January 2026 Please aim to process and share your records by this date.
31 March 2026 Final deadline for inclusion in the Red List assessment.
Thank you in advance for helping improve conservation knowledge of these important fungal groups.
Contacts
Paul A. Smith — pas.vc110@gmail.com
Matt Wainhouse, Natural England — Matthew.Wainhouse@naturalengland.org.uk
References
Ainsworth, A.M., Smith, J.H., Boddy, L., Dentinger, B.T.M., Jordan, M., Parfitt, D., Rogers, H.J. & Skeates, S.J. (2013) Red List of Fungi for Great Britain: Boletaceae. Species Status No. 14. JNCC: Peterborough.
Evans, S. (2006) The Red Data List of Threatened British Fungi. British Mycological Society.
Klenke, F. & Scholler, M. (2015) Pflanzenparasitische Kleinpilze. Springer-Verlag, Berlin & Heidelberg.
Woods, R.G., Chater, A.O., Stringer, R.N., Evans, D.A. & Smith, P.A. (2024) Towards a Handlist of Microfungal Parasites of Vascular Plants from Britain and Ireland and a Census Catalogue for Wales. A.O. Chater: Aberystwyth.
