Journal of Ecosystem & Ecography
Open Access

Abstract

The current study was undertaken to inventory species of macrofungi within Western Ghats regions of Karnataka which includes districts of Chamarajnagar, Mysore, Kodagu and Hassan. The survey conducted during June 2010 to September 2011 revealed the diverse species of Basidiomycetes. A total of 56 genera, 120 species of macrofungi belonging to 32 families were recorded. The richness was more in Kodagu (45%) and Mysore (47%) followed by Hassan (23%) and Chamarajnagar (17%) respectively. Among the collected species Panaeolus sp. forms most abundant in Chamarajnagar, Calocera and Cyathus spp. abundant in Mysore and Coprinus and Schizophyllum spp. found abundant in all the four places investigated. The members of the family Russulaceae were found only in Kodagu region. The Shannon and Simpson diversity indices were found to be 1.34 and 1.02 in Chamarajnagar, 1.42 and 1.27 in Mysore, 1.43 and 1.25 in Kodagu and 1.39 and 1.05 in Hassan, which indicates similarity between Chamarajnagar and Hassan, Kodagu and Mysore in terms of diversity and richness of macrofungi. The species richness was more in undisturbed places such as forests, meadows, pastures associated with grass, litter and logs than the disturbed places like planted forest areas and streamside. The findings suggests that disturbances affected the macrofungi distribution hence there is need for conservation in order to prevent further loss of fungal diversity. Besides, environmental factors do greatly influence the growth and development of macrofungi. Among the collected species of fungi, there were poisonous species like Amanita, Chlorophyllum and Volvariella, medicinal species like Pleurotus, Ganoderma, Lentinus and Phellinus, edible species like Agaricus, Pleurotus and Auricularia and perennial species like Ganoderma, Microporus, Xylaria, Polyporus and Phellinus respectively. The results of the study would provide a baseline for further investigation in this area for documentation

Biography

Usha N has completed her M. Sc., and M. Phil., and at present Research Scholar under the guidance of Dr. G. R. Janardhana in Department of Studies in Botany, University of Mysore, Karnataka, India. She is gold medalist in M. Phil., and she has attended many conferences, workshops and seminars and also presented poster in many conferences