A Preliminary Checklist of Arizona Macrofungi was initially published in Canotia, (2006, Volume 2, issue 2: 47-78) a periodical made available online through the Arizona State University Vascular Plant Herbarium. Records for that checklist were obtained from the literature as well as herbarium databases that were available online at the date of publication.  Prior to publication, a database of these records was compiled by the author that included the source of the record, the binomial as it was originally published, and the taxon name that was accepted in the CABI Index Fungorum at that time.

     The preliminary checklist reported 1291 species of nonlichenized macrofungi for the state, and although that number is impressive, it is likely that several thousand more species are present in the state.  By making the checklist database accessible online, it can be continually updated as more records become available.  Nomenclature and classification schemes can also be changed to conform with current taxonomic concepts so that the checklist will retain its relevancy in the future.  In addition to making the source for each record available to researchers, it is hoped that future versions of the checklist will be linked to geographic data as well as digital images of the taxa represented.