Species diversity of pathogenic wood-rotting fungi (Agaricomycetes, Basidiomycota) in China

Wood-rotting basidiomycetes have been investigated in the Chinese forest ecosystem for the past 30 years. Two hundred and five pathogenic wood-decayers belonging to 9 orders, 30 families, and 74 genera have been found in Chinese native forests, plantations, and gardens. Seventy-two species (accounting for 35% of the total pathogenic species) are reported as pathogenic fungi in China for the first time. Among these pathogens, 184 species are polypores, nine are corticioid fungi, eight are agarics and five are hydnoid basidiomycetes. One hundred and seventy-seven species (accounting for 86%) cause white rot, while 28 species (accounting for 14%) result in brown rot; 157 species grow on angiosperm trees (accounting for 76.5%) and 44 species occur on gymnosperm trees (accounting for 21.5%), only four species inhabit both angiosperms and gymnosperms (accounting for 2%); 95 species are distributed in boreal to temperate forests and 110 in subtropical to tropical forests. In addition, 17 species, including Fomitopsis pinicola, Heterobasidion parviporum, and Phellinidium weirii etc. which were previously treated as pathogenic species in China, do not occur in China according to recent studies. In this paper, the host(s), type of forest, rot type, and distribution of each pathogenic species in China are given.