Collection of fungi watercolours by Konrad Schieferdecker (1902-1965)

Konrad Schieferdecker was born on 24 January 1902 in Friedrichsbrunn (Saxony-Anhalt, Germany). He studied geodesy at the College of Agriculture in Berlin. In 1925 he was appointed as a surveyor in Hildesheim (Lower Saxony), where he lived until his death on 23 December 1965. His paramount personal interest for 40 years was the study of mycology, botany as well as numismatics and prehistory of the Hildesheim region. He published a series of scientific papers on various topics, including descriptions of some fungi that were new to science. K. Schieferdecker maintained a lively scientific exchange of ideas with the famous mycologist Wilhelm Kirschstein (Berlin) until his death in 1946. In honour of the collector, W. Kirschstein (1944) described Lahnea schieferdeckeri . There are 19 publications by Schieferdecker with mycological content, a bibliography, and an obituary to him.

In 1963, K. Schieferdecker donated a collection of finely drawn watercolours, partially supplemented with ink and pencil drawings, and a few monochrome photographs of micro- and large fungi to the SNSB-BSM. Almost all of the species (875 taxa) are native to Germany (surroundings of Hildesheim) and also occur in Bavaria. The approximately 1,300 paintings on stiff paper are mounted on black cardboard. Their size (height x width) varies from 12 x 9 cm to 26 x 19 cm. The first watercolour dates from September 1941 (Orbilia luteorubella), the last from September 1963 (Russula cyanoxantha). They are numbered (e.g., Pi 1254 Zg) and annotated and signed "KS" by the artist. The early drawings are usually framed with an ink outline. In 2002, the collection was made available on the internet as a database-supported virtual gallery.

The digital indexing of the collection was initialised by Dr Dagmar Triebel as curator in charge of the collection as early as 2001, and the identification of the fungi was checked by experts and adapted to modern taxonomy. The taxonomic identity of the individual organisms and their occurrence in time and space, linked to the image files, are managed, archived, and published via various portals at the SNSB IT Centre. They are freely available via the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) science portal in accordance with international data exchange standards.

>> This collection is part of the holdings of the Botanische Staatssammlung München (Botanical State Collection Munich) (SNSB-BSM) and the Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns (State Natural Science Collections of Bavaria) (SNSB).