In addition to having nutritional benefits, macrofungi have also been used medicinally. As a result, it is crucial to both the economy and the environment. This study was conducted from May 2020 to June 2022 in three urban parks in Kolkata, a major city in the Indian state of West Bengal. Twenty-eight fungal specimens were identified in this investigation, out of which 99% of the taxa are Basidiomycota, while only 1% is Ascomycota. The taxa belonged to 18 families and eight orders. Sixteen species were discovered in wood, notably over the dry stems of bamboo, and ten were discovered in soil, particularly in grasslands, over rotten dry leaves, and one over organic debris. Eleven of the specimens are edible, whereas the other eight are not. Out of 28 species, 32.14% of species are unknown. Among the three urban parks, viz., Ecopark, Central Park, and Elliot Park, macrofungal diversity was found to be the highest in Ecopark, followed by Central Park and Elliot Park. This study demonstrates the macrofungal diversity in three urban parks in Kolkata. The current study creates new opportunities for the investigation and use of wild mushrooms in urban parks in Kolkata.

Poroid fungi that grow on the wood are frequently associated with other basidiomycetes that are often used as a substrate, also during fungal succession. This lifestyle has differing evolutionary origins, going back at least 100 million years. The use of fungal tissue as a substrate indicates that some fungicolous taxa could benefit from the higher nutrient contents compared to wood. These life modes relate to the dead and live fruiting bodies of the hosts. It may take forms such as commensalism, replacement, saprotrophy, displacement, and parasitism. These modes, often driven by competitive processes, imply different strategies that, in most cases, may be linked to the degrading capacities (rot types) of colonizers and hosts, i.e., to their enzymatic repertoire. This repertoire often includes glucanases, which are potentially able to cleave structural glucans of fungi. For investigating these assumptions, a compilation of published data of 95 taxa recorded in temperate and boreal biomes of the northern hemisphere was analyzed. A conspicuous, previously unpublished observation was that the members of most associations showed a higher ratio of white rotters than those among wood fungi in general. This phenomenon points to their highly developed enzymatic competence, which may also explain saprotrophy on dead fruit bodies. Future research should, above all, investigate molecular mechanisms involved in mycotrophic basidiomycetes.

This paper is the first in the AJOM series in which we report 100 new collections of fungi which include new species, host and country records. In all, nine new species, 90 new records and one new combination are introduced. The purpose of this series is to provide an outlet for publishing collections with sequence data, so that these observations will not be wasted and mycologists can use the information to update fungal classification and better identification of species. Previously, numerous species were described from the first collection and no further data on the species were published as it was considered low impact. This series will, therefore, increase the knowledge on the host occurrence, biogeography and sequence variability in each taxon dealt with. The distribution and hosts for each listed species are added if backed up by sequence data.

Botryosphaeriaceae species commonly cause cankers and diebacks on woody hosts widely threatening forests and plantations. In this study, pathogenicity tests on Tectona grandis were conducted for five Botryosphaeriaceae species, viz. Barriopsis tectonae, Dothiorella tectonae, Lasiodiplodia brasiliense, L. pseudotheobromae and Sphaeropsis eucalypticola. Detached and wounded T. grandis twigs were inoculated with 0.1 cm 3 agar plugs cut from the margins of actively growing colonies. Lesion development was recorded seven days after inoculation. Two isolates of L. pseudotheobromae (MFLUCC 12-0772 and MFLUCC 12-0796) associated with cankers and dieback were significantly pathogenic on T. grandis. However, each of these isolates was found only in one site amongst the 35 sites surveyed. Three species, B. tectonae, D. tectonae and S. eucalypticola were not pathogenic on T. grandis. It is supposed that these species might act as endophytes or saprobes on T. grandis. Two saprobic isolates L. brasiliense (MFLUCC 11-0414) and L. pseudotheobromae (MFLUCC 12-0053) were likely to be potential pathogens. This is the first report of the pathogenic potential of saprobic L. brasiliense and L. pseudotheobromae on teak

Ramophialophora chlamydospora, a dematiaceous hyphomycete, recovered from alkaline water of Lake Fasida in Wadi-El-Natron, Egypt, is described.It has phenotypic characterization of branched conidiophores ending with terminal phialides with collarettes, on which dacryoid, brown conidia are formed in slimy heads, and the formation of abundant chlamydospores, a characteristic morphological feature for this new species, that differentiates this new species from the other four species of Ramophialophora.Sequence analysis of ITS region revealed its relationship with members of order Sordariales.A culture of the new fungus was preserved as pure one and deposited in the culture collection of the Assiut University Mycological Centre as AUMC 11013.The ITS sequence data was uploaded to the GenBank as KX446768 and the morphological characterization was uploaded to MycoBank as MB828700.

In the present study, lichenized discomycete taxa collected from northern Thailand, southern China, the UK, Ukraine and Russia are documented. Taxonomic studies of these taxa were carried out using both morphology and molecular data. Their phylogenetic relationships were inferred using LSU rDNA and ITS rDNA sequence data or combined analysis of these gene regions. Twelve lichenized discomycete taxa are reported in this paper including three new species (viz. Bacidia subareolata, Buellia sublauri-cassiae and Letrouitia magenta) and one reference species (Letrouitia transgressa).

A novel species, Phaeoseptum mali is described based on its distinct morphs and phylogenetic relationships among members of Phaeoseptaceae (Pleosporales). Phaeoseptum mali can be distinguished from other species of Phaeoseptum by its ascomatal, asci and ascospore characters. A detailed illustration and a description of P. mali are provided. Phylogenetic analyses of a combined LSU, ITS, SSU, tef1, and rpb2 sequence dataset confirmed its placement within Phaeoseptaceae and its relationships to P. aquaticum and P. terricola.

This guide is an attempt to consolidate all information pertinent to the taxonomy of the genus Didymium, including uniform species descriptions and a key for all of the species, and to make this information available to interested persons in an open access journal. Didymium is a genus, in which over eighty species have been described, that is defined by the presence of crystalline lime granules occurring on the peridium but not in the capillitium, The number of different species and the morphological variability within many of them has produced a situation where it is sometimes difficult to identify a particular specimen. Thus, this article is an attempt to provide guidance in the identification of these species.