The collection of fungi, TAAM, was founded in 1950 by the Institute of Zoology and Botany (IZB) of the Estonian Academy of Sciences where the distribution, taxonomy and phylogeny of mainly pore and gill fungi, gasteromycetes and discomycetes was studied. The leader of this mycological working group was Dr. Erast Parmasto. Fieldworks with colleagues in Estonia were frequently organized.
Expeditions to remote regions of the former Soviet Union were arranged annually starting from 1956. The farthest destination in the east was Chukotka, in the north Dickson island in Kara Sea and in the south Badhyz in Turkmenistan.
Part of specimens were obtained via exchange with colleagues in others institutions. 1980. the total specimens number reached to 100000. The collection was spread out between the scientist`s offices, but was moved to a storage room in 1998. IZB was merged with the Estonian University of Life Sciences (then named Estonian Agricultural University) in 2004.
The acronym of fungal collection was TAA until 2009 while it was formally an integral part of the botanical herbarium TAA, but was changed to TAAM in 2010.
The exciccatae Mycotheca Estonica by E. Parmasto, Fasc. 1-3 (1957-1961) and Corticiaceae USSR by E. Parmasto, Fasc. 1-3 (1966-1969) have been issued. More than 700 mycological studies based on TAAM collections have been published. The mycologists of IZB / IAES have completed 20 volumes of the series “Scripta Mycologica” and three fascicles of the distribution maps of Estonian fungi.