One of the important functions of the botanical garden is the ex situ conservation of native and rare and endangered plants. The 2023 Symposium on Wild Mushroom Resources and Sustainable Utilization was held in Kunming, Yunnan Province, and Professor Dai Yucheng of Beijing Forestry University shared his speech entitled "Research on the Diversity of Polypore Fungi in China Botanical Garden".
Professor Dai Yucheng introduced the overview of the botanical garden: the botanical garden refers to the institution that has a living plant collection area and records and manages the plants in the collection area, so that it can be used for scientific research, protection, display and education, and one of its important functions is to carry out ex situ conservation of native plants and rare and endangered plants. At present, there are more than 3,300 botanical gardens in the world, and nearly 200 in China.
Does the botanical garden conserve plant resources while also protecting the fungal resources that grow on plants? Based on this problem, Professor Dai Yucheng and his team conducted a systematic survey of polypore bacteria in botanical gardens in 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) across the country, aiming to understand the species, structure, flora and distribution of polypore in botanical gardens in China, so as to clarify whether botanical gardens can effectively protect polypore growing on trees while protecting trees.
The results of the survey showed that a total of 164 species of polypore were found, belonging to 79 genera of 6 orders, 23 families and 79 genera in the class of Basidiomycetes, and there were 1010 species of polypore in China, belonging to 155 genera of 11 orders, 44 families, and the polypore order, family and genera of the botanical garden accounted for the whole country. 0% and 162%。The frequencies of Polypores in 31 botanical gardens were analyzed, and the three species with the highest frequency were Coriolus versicolor (24 botanical gardens), R. albacystis (18 botanical gardens) and Pornomyces nigra (18 botanical gardens).
In the report, Professor Dai Yucheng also introduced and analyzed the composition of polypore fungi, the distribution and proportion of brown decaying polypore, pathogenic polypore, medicinal polypore, and rare polypore in 31 botanical gardens.
Through a series of investigations and studies, the results show that at present, the China Botanical Garden preserves 67% of the plant species in China, including 85% of the rare and endangered plants, but the polypore in the botanical garden only accounts for 16% of the total polypore in China, and the rare polypore in the plantation of the botanical garden accounts for 13%, the botanical garden can effectively conserve plants, but the protection of polypore resources growing in the botanical garden is limited, especially the artificial botanical garden can hardly conserve rare polypore fungi, therefore, the protection of forest ecosystem is an effective way to conserve polypore fungi!
The conference was hosted by the Yunnan Wild Mushroom Conservation and Development Association, the Chinese Mycological Society, and the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and organized by the Key Laboratory of East Asian Plant Diversity and Biogeography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Key Laboratory of Fungal Diversity and Green Development of Yunnan Province, the Mycology and Edible and Medicinal Mushroom Professional Committee of the Yunnan Botanical Society, and the Yimushroom Network.