Investigating the basidiomycete diversity of Grosseto province (Italy, Tuscany): an annotated check-list (Summary)

We present a list of 1,619 species of Basidiomycota, subphylum Agaricomycotina, growing in Grosseto province (Italy, Tuscany), obtained from our own collections and from literature data. Our survey included a systematic census of 18 sampling sites distributed throughout the province. Details of habitat and frequency are presented for each species. We recognized six categories of species frequency: rare, uncommon, occasional, fairly frequent, locally common and common, ranged in order of increasing commonness. Rare species (defined as those occurring in less than 8% of sample sites) were the majority, accounting for more than 40% of the total. Native habitats inside the province were divided into four large vegetation units: evergreen Mediterranean vegetation, thermophile deciduous oak woods, mixed mesophile broad-leaved woods, and beech woods; conifer woods, being mainly introduced, were considered in separate units. The thermophile deciduous oak woods displayed the maximum fungal biodiversity, with 656 records, followed by the mixed mesophile broad-leaved woods (592), by Mediterranean evergreens (580), and finally by beech woods (217); conifer woods had 303 records, divided into 136 for coastal pines and 167 for mountain conifers. Two new species, Tephrocybella constrictospora and Cortinarius lentus (proposed elsewhere), were discovered in the course of this work, and some species new to Italy were noted, such as Crepidotus macedonicus, Tephroderma fuscopallens and Cortinarius chailluzi.