Macrofungi community in rubber plantations and a forest of Edo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Permanent plots in rubber plantations and a lowland forest, each measuring 25×25 m, were randomly laid out using coloured ribbons and studied twice a month for macrofungi for a period of 14 months. A total of 435 fruit bodies belonging to 93 different species of macrofungi were encountered, 70% of which were identified. Identified taxa were distributed into 4 Classes, 9 Orders and 28 Families with the class Hymenomycetes and family Tricholomataceae as the best represented taxa. Agaric (52%) and polypores mushrooms (31%) were also recorded as the best represented life-forms while wood-based substrates recorded 70% of the total mushroom taxa encountered during the study. The species richness and diversity estimate of 100 randomization accumulation sample order of mushroom abundance data from each of the sampled plots showed that the forest (Plot E) had the best species richness and diversity index values compared to plot A, B, C and D. © 2010 Asian Network for Scientific Information.