Mushrooms and Toad Stools of Margalla Hills and Adjacent Area, Islamabad

Abstract

More than 600 samples of Mushrooms and Toadstools (macerofungi) were collected during the proposed period i.e. September 2001 to August 2002 from Margalla hills and adjoining areas by conducting seven visits. The altitude ranges from 465 to 1656 meter (the lowest top). The geology of the area represented by variety of rocks and vegetation is mixed consisting of pine, oak and other broad-level trees, shrubs, herb and grasses. Under this environment the soil of area during rainy season enfavour the growth of mushrooms from April to October. The massive number of mushrooms bloom in August and September. The delicate taxa have short span of life while the perennial and hard mushrooms like Polypores and Fomes continue to grow throughout the year. Two hundred species were identified by following the procedure (key) for morphological and microscopic characters. They were arranged orderly under the system of classification by Bon 1987 which was compared with Alexopolous et.al. (1996). The identified species of three sub classes and two classes were: the subclass Agaricomycetidae (Agaricales) has 15 families. 25 genera and 82 species; Gasteromyctidaeae (gasteromycetes) has the 5 families, 43 genera and 77 species; the class Phragmobasidiomycetes (septate basidium) has one family, 3 genera and 7 species; the class Ascomycetes has 6 families, 10 genera and 23 species. All the species were summarized accordingly. Each Species was described with the salient identification characters, measurement, and chemical test where ever necessary followed by habitat, soil or host, locality (place of collection), date of collection and field nos. given in the end. Amir Sultan and Qasim Shah described 64 macrofungi for their M.Phil thesis. Later on Sultan (2001) published an article comprising over 15 species including on Mycena myxocaulis as a record, Sultana 2001 enlisted 60 taxa including 12 taxa as 1st record from Islamabad. In the present report out of 200, 115 species were uncovered for the 1st time from Margalla hills and adjoining areas .31 species were edible while the others were hard and all these were benefitting the human beings medically directly or indirectly. One edible species of the oyster (Pleurotus ostreatus) was isolated on P.D.A., E. and P. cellulose and Soya bean agar media. This pure culture was processed for making spawn for onward use in cultivation. The collected samples were processed on herbarium lines and were indexed in the Mycological Herbarium for record for future research. Besides the method of collection, drying, disinfection and preservation; the process of culturing and cultivation was also detailed in the materials and methods.