The Checklist of Sicilian Macrofungi: Second Edition

Abstract

Approximately 30 years after the publication of the first Sicilian checklist of macrofungi, a new updated version is presented here. The census of macromycetes was carried out through periodic observations in different agricultural and forest ecosystems, in urban areas, in public and private gardens, and in botanical gardens. The 1919 infraspecific taxa included in 508 genera belonging to 152 families were collected in the Sicilian territory. Ectomycorrhizal fungi are the most represented ecological category, followed by saprotrophs on wood, saprotrophs on litter, and terricolous saprotrophs. The interest in this rich group of organisms is evidenced by the nutritional and therapeutic value of a high percentage of species. The actions linked to the National Recovery and Resilience Plan and The Network for the Study of Mycological Diversity will further increase the number of macrofungi for Sicily in the future.

The historical fungi collection of the General Herbarium of Palermo (PAL)

“…1707 specific and intraspecific taxa, 698 genera, 254 families are included in this paper, most of which are mycromycetes responsible for diseases on major agricultural crops, with backgrounds from all parts of the world. This represents a clear difference from modern-day fungal diversity research more oriented toward the study of macromycetes (Ferraro & al. 2022).…”

Checklist of Macrofungi Associated with Nine Different Habitats of Taburno-Camposauro Massif in Campania, Southern Italy

“…For each collection, samples were transported to the Laboratory of the Orazio Comes library in MUSA (Department of Agricultural Sciences of Federico II University of Naples, Portici) for species identification. Specimens were determined according to sporophore morphologic features and a microscopic analysis was performed using a similar approach to that reported by Ferraro in 2022 [5].…”

“…Ecological aspects of each species were assessed by comparing genus and species with databases of fungal trophic strategies FUNGUILD and comprehensive reviews on mycorrhizalplant associations [27][28][29]. Nomenclature was readapted to those adopted in 2022 by Ferraro [5] as: Ecm = Ectomycorrhizal, Pm = Parasite on mushrooms, Pn = Necrotroph parasites, Sbg = Saprotrophs on burnt ground, Sd = Saprotrophs on dung, Sc = Saprotrophs on cones, Scl = Saprotrophs on cladodes, Scu = Saprotrophs on cupules, Se = Saprotrophs on exuviate, Sh = Saprotrophs on humus, Sl = Saprotrophs on litter, Sle = Saprotrophson leaves, Sm = Saprotrophs on mosses, St = Terricolous saprotrophs, Sw = Saprotrophs on wood, and UNK = Unknown.…”

“…The diversity of this wide kingdom is markedly underestimated and deserving of a massive research effort [1,2]. Within the vastity of the fungal kingdom, a convenient opportunity to study and give a glimpse into their geographic distribution and their organization within hosting habitats comes from territorial census and checklist production of macrofungi [3][4][5]. Nowadays, fungal checklists are used to assess biological diversity in a specific geographic area [6,7], to assess the ecological relationship between fungi and plant communities [8][9][10]; additionally, checklists are helpful means to categorize fungal taxa as bioindicator species, providing helpful information in light of macroecological effects due to territorial management policies [11].…”

“…Nowadays, fungal checklists are used to assess biological diversity in a specific geographic area [6,7], to assess the ecological relationship between fungi and plant communities [8][9][10]; additionally, checklists are helpful means to categorize fungal taxa as bioindicator species, providing helpful information in light of macroecological effects due to territorial management policies [11]. For this reason, macromycetes census, despite representing one of the oldest methods in mycology, remains an actual and representative practice to assess the presence of a reproducing population of fungi in a specified environment [1,5,12]. More recently, ITS-based metagenomics techniques can also provide comprehensive information on fungal communities.…”