Welcome to CrustFungi.Com!

My name is Alden Dirks, and I am the creator of CrustFungi.Com. CrustFungi.Com aims to be the comprehensive web-based resource on crust fungi. Inspired by Michael Kuo's MushroomExpert.Com but with an explicit focus on crusts, my goal is to provide the public a high-quality, scientifically accurate educational platform on these understudied and overlooked but hyperdiverse fungi. Launched in 2018, a few crust fungi species profiles were added over the years, but the site remained limited in scope.

CrustFungi.Com 2.0

During a period of unemployment in late 2025, I completely redesigned CrustFungi.Com as modern web app using the Django web framework. A search functionality was added, and a taxonomy filter was implemented. Most importantly, species profiles are now stored in a database, and any user can add new profiles to the website. I hope that CrustFungi.Com will grow faster and better capture the many different crust species of the world as a crowdsourced, community endeavor.

Aesthetics

The new websites retains many of the aesthetics of the first version. The logo of CrustFungi.Com is a linoleum print that I made some time ago — it is meant to represent a crust species like Phlebia radiata or the like. The navigation links are written in Peich linocut typeface font to match the logo design. Thanks Robert Young for this beautiful font!

The future of CrustFungi.Com

My future goals for CrustFungi.Com include creating a custom crust ITS database and BLAST portal, linking species profiles to specific observations (e.g., iNaturalist observations), and generating distribution maps for each species.