o_19ko2dt161ng2j4e1tgnoqv1s45a.pdf

MACROFUNGAL DIVERSITY IN MALAYSIA
of macrofungi from the former are also included as those being from Malaysia. Many
macrofungi are important as sources of food and medicine, some are symbionts in
ectomycorrhizal associations with trees while others cause diseases and decay.
A recent study of putative ectomycorrhizal fungi in a lowland rain forest at Pasoh, Malaysia
clearly illustrates the large number of tropical fungi yet to be discovered (Lee et al. 2003). Of
the 296 taxa of putative ectomycorrhizal fungi recorded, 66% are undescribed, reflecting the
poor knowledge of macrofungi in the tropics. In another study also conducted at Pasoh, more
than 200 species of polypores were found from a relatively small area of about 4 ha and along
adjacent trails (Hattori & Lee 2003). The authors of this last study estimate that about 300
species of polypores might be expected from this single research site compared to only about
330 species recorded for the whole of Europe where most of the species have already been
listed (Ryvarden & Gilbertson 1993, 1994). These examples are from only a few studies in
Malaysia re-emphasising the late Prof. E.J.H. Corner’s estimate that up to 70% of the fungi in
Malaysia had yet to be discovered. From information obtained through personal communication,
Jones and Hyde (2004) estimated that there are over 2,000 documented fungi in Malaysia. It
would be safe to say that this figure is still an underestimate of the fungal diversity of Malaysia.
LITERATURE REVIEW
The first attempt to list Malayan fungi was made by Bancroft in 1913 (cited in Chipp 1921) in
his “List of fungi identified in the Federated Malay States” in which 105 species were
mentioned. An additional five species were listed by Sharples later that same year (Chipp
1921) and this was followed by a brief but important contribution on 16 boletes five years
later by Patouillard and Baker (1918) (see Watling 2000). Subsequently, a general list of fungi
for the Malay Peninsula was published by Chipp (1921) who, however, did not attempt to
give a total number of species as many synonyms were evident and many of the early
determinations still needed checking. Basidiomycetes make up the bulk of the collections
described by Chipp (1921), with the earliest records being the collections of Beccari between
1865 and 1879 on his way to Sarawak and those of Rev. Father Scortechini in 1885. Other
early collectors included Kunstler but the majority of the collections were the result of work
by Ridley and Mrs. E. Burkill (Chipp 1921). The data contained in these early reports are now
long out of date and the taxonomy considerably changed but there has been no other general
listing of the fungi for the peninsula or Malaysia since. This lack of information was evident
in Lim’s (1972) short illustrated report on the more common macrofungi of Malaysia and
Singapore, where the majority of the fungi were identified to genus level only and where
surprisingly only one of the ten references listed was directly concerned with Malaysian fungi,
despite extensive monographic work in the area.
Unlike other tropical countries, Malaysia and Singapore have been very well served for the
macrofungi as many world monographs have been published centred around the macrofungi
species found in the Malay Peninsula. This has been a result largely of the efforts and
contributions of the late Prof. E.J.H. Corner who undoubtedly was the most prolific and
authoritative mycologist in Malaysia (Watling 2001a). Of his 141 publications produced
between 1929 until his death in 1996 (Watling 2001a), 97 concerned mycological topics,
nearly all of them dealing with the macrofungi. His monographic treatments of the Boletaceae,
Cantharellaceae, Clavariaceae, Thelephoraceae, Tricholomataceae and Polyporaceae are used
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