The gilled mushroom Amanita spissacea (Amanitaceae): a new report for India

Abstract

Mizoram is regarded as one of the biodiversity hotspots of the World owing to the diverse group of flora and fauna documented here. Information regarding the macrofungi, however, is very limited. For this reason, a systematic study of mushrooms from Mizoram was undertaken and during the field survey, Amanita spissacea was collected and identified. This is the first report of this mushroom from India. This species was identified on the basis of its morphological and microscopic characteristics as well as molecular characterization of the ITS region of rDNA. Phylogenetic analysis also confirmed that A. spissacea was a distinct species from A. fritillaria, A. sepiacea, A. citrina and other closely related species Amanita section Valideae.

Keywords

• macrofungi
• mizoram
• phylogeny
• taxonomy