Diversity of genus Marasmius sect. Marasmius from North India.

Abstract

Seven marasmioid fungi belonging to section Marasmius viz. Marasmius aspilocephalus (Singer), Marasmius baumannii (Henn.), Marasmius curreyi (Berk. and Broome), Marasmius griseoviolaceus (Petch), Marasmius guyanensis var. guayarensis (Singer), Marasmius nigrobrunneus (Pat.) Sacc., and Marasmius rotalis (Berk. and Broome) are described in this paper. A comprehensive description with detailed illustrations to aid the identification, comparisons with respect to morphological and anatomical characters and an artificial key to the described species of Marasmius sect. Marasmius are provided. This work serves as a preliminary part of series dealing with macroscopic fungi of North India. All the taxa described here belong to section Marasmius, which is characterized by unique characters like institious stipes and collariate lamelle. These characters distinguish this section from other remaining sections of the genus Marasmius. Five species including Marasmius aspilocephalus (Singer), Marasmius baumannii (Henn.), Marasmius griseoviolaceus (Petch), Marasmius guyanensis var. guayarensis (Singer) and Marasmius nigrobrunneus (Pat.) Sacc. are first reports from India. Marasmius rotalis (Berk. and Broome) is reported for the first time from North India while Marasmius curreyi (Berk.and Broome) is new to Punjab. This research enriches our knowledge of species in the section Marasmius.