Macrofungal diversity of urbanized areas in southern part of Korea

Most macrofungi are cosmopolitan, occurring in both tropical and temperate regions. Studies on diversity and distribution of the mushroom flora in Korea are mainly conducted in major national parks and forest, but there are few studies on species distributed in urbanized areas. As part of the Korea National Arboretum project, we investigated the diversity of mushrooms through examining the distribution of mushrooms in Gyeongsang Province from May to September in 2017. In this province, we surveyed urbanized areas comprising three cultural heritage protection zones (Salix chaenomeloides forest, Tongdo Temple, Placenta Chamber of King Sejong's Princes), two urban parks (Duryu and Amnam parks), and 20 legally protected trees (such as Ginko biloba, Pinus densiflora, Quercus acutissima, Salix hallaisanensis, Zelkova serrata and so on). Consequently, 37 species on legally protected trees, 48 species in urban parks, and 84 species in cultural heritage protection zones were confirmed. A total of 37 families, 90 genera, and 139 species were identified. Of those, three species were confirmed for the first time in Korea. This study provides the basic data for the preparation of protection management protocols for macrofungal flora on legally protected trees and in cultural property protection areas.