Index Fungorum, an international project to index all formal names (scientific name

Binomial nomenclature

Binomial nomenclature is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, although they can be based on words from other languages...

s) in the Fungi

Fungus

A fungus is a member of a large group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds , as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, Fungi, which is separate from plants, animals, and bacteria...

 Kingdom

Kingdom (biology)

In biology, kingdom is a taxonomic rank, which is either the highest rank or in the more recent three-domain system, the rank below domain. Kingdoms are divided into smaller groups called phyla or divisions in botany...

. Somewhat comparable to the IPNI, but with more contributing institutions.

Another difference is that where IPNI does not indicate correct name

Correct name (botany)

In botany, the correct name according to the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature is the one and only botanical name that is to be used for a particular taxon, when that taxon has a particular circumscription, position and rank. Determining whether a name is correct is a complex procedure...

s, the Index Fungorum does indicate the status of a name. In the returns from the search page a currently correct name is indicated in green, while others are in blue (a few, aberrant usages of names are indicated in red). All names are linked to pages giving the correct name, with lists of synonym

Synonym (taxonomy)

In scientific nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that is or was used for a taxon of organisms that also goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linnaeus was the first to give a scientific name to the Norway spruce, which he called Pinus abies...

s.

Life Science Identifiers (LSIDs)

Index Fungorum provides Life Science Identifiers (LSIDs)

LSID

Life Science Identifiers are a way to name and locate pieces of information on the web. Essentially, an LSID is a unique identifier for some data, and the LSID protocol specifies a standard way to locate the data...

 for records in its database.

Services

Index Fungorum provides a SOAP

SOAP

SOAP, originally defined as Simple Object Access Protocol, is a protocol specification for exchanging structured information in the implementation of Web Services in computer networks...

 protocol web service

Web service

A Web service is a method of communication between two electronic devices over the web.The W3C defines a "Web service" as "a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network". It has an interface described in a machine-processable format...

 for searching its database and retrieving records. A WSDL

Web Services Description Language

The Web Services Description Language is an XML-based language that is used for describing the functionality offered by a Web service. A WSDL description of a web service provides a machine-readable description of how the service can be called, what parameters it expects and what data structures...

 file describing the services is available.

See also

• Australian Plant Name Index
  Australian Plant Name Index
  The Australian Plant Name Index is an online database of all published names of Australian vascular plants. It covers all names, whether current names, synonyms or invalid names...
  
  
• Index Kewensis
  Index Kewensis
  The Index Kewensis , maintained by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, is a publication that aims to register all botanical names for seed plants at the rank of species and genera...
  
  
• International Plant Names Index