© 2019 W. Szafer Institute of Botany Polish Academy of Sciences Plant and Fungal Systematics 64(1): 101–110, 2019 ISSN 2544-7459 (print) DOI: 10.2478/pfs-2019-0011 ISSN 2657-5000 (online) Comparison of habitats of the rare fungus Pluteus fenzlii between Białowieża Virgin Forest (Poland) and thermophilous forests (Slovakia) Tomáš Kučera1*, Vladimír Kunca2 & Jan Holec3 Abstract. Pluteus fenzlii is a rare Eurasian lignicolous fungus, an iconic bright yellow spe- Article info cies that attracts attention. Its habitat in the Białowieża Virgin Forest, Poland, is dominated Received: 16 Apr. 2019 by Carpinus betulus with admixture of Quercus robur, Tilia cordata and Picea abies, with Revision received: 22 May 2019 an herb layer typical for the Carpinion betuli alliance. In Slovakia, the country hosting the Accepted: 27 Jun. 2019 highest number of localities worldwide, P. fenzlii prefers closed canopy of thermophilous Published: 30 Jul. 2019 forest with dominance of Quercus cerris and adjacent Quercus robur agg., Q. petraea agg., Associate Editor Carpinus betulus and Tilia cordata. In the Natura 2000 classification this vegetation belongs Adam Flakus to habitat 91M0, Pannonian-Balkanic Turkey Oak-Sessile Oak forests, and priority habitat 91G0, Pannonic woods with Quercus petraea and Carpinus betulus. The Slovak localities can be assigned to the mycosociological community Boleto (aerei)–Russuletum luteotactae, typical for thermophilous oak forests of Southern Europe and extrazonal areas in Central Europe. The presence of P. fenzlii at the isolated Białowieża locality could represent either a remote site of its present occurrence or a remnant of its former distribution, connected with the relict occurrence of thermophilous vegetation in Białowieża where continental oak forests have already disappeared. Key words: Central Europe, threatened fungi, habitat, thermophilous vegetation, fungal community, ordination Introduction Pluteus fenzlii is a rare Eurasian lignicolous fungus known and ravine ash forests belonging to the association Iso- from only six countries in Europe (Holec et al. 2018). pyro thalictroidis-Quercetum roboris from the alliance This remarkably yellow annulate species grows on dead Fraxino-Quercion roboris (Corriol & Moreau 2007). The wood of broadleaved tree species. It is an iconic species easternmost European locality is in pine-dominated forests that attracts attention. It usually occurs in hilly areas with with admixed deciduous trees on carbonate rock covered more or less natural broadleaved forests, mostly meso- and by loam in the vicinity of the Volga River, Samara region, thermophilous ones, within the transitional zone between Russia (Malysheva et al. 2007). The northernmost locality hornbeam (alternatively beech) and oak woodlands. How- in Central Europe is the Białowieża Virgin Forest in east- ever, the species occurs in a wide geographical area and ern Poland, where P. fenzlii grows in hornbeam-dominated transitional ecological niches in Europe. From west to deciduous forest of the association Tilio cordatae-Carpin- east, it occurs in foothills of the French Pyrenees in north- etum betuli on glaciofluvial deposits. In the south it is ern basiphilous slope mountain beech forests belonging to currently reported from Hungary as occurring in acido- the suballiance Scillo lilio-hyacinthi-Fagenion sylvaticae philous beech forests of the association Luzulo-Fagetum on andesite bedrock and in thermophilous oak forests on sandstone, andesite and alluvial deposits of slightly acidic 1 Department of Ecosystems Biology, Faculty of Science, University loess and clay (Holec et al. 2018). of South Bohemia, Branišovská 1760, CZ-370 05 České Budějovice, Czech Republic As our previous detailed paper on P. fenzlii was 2 Department of Applied Ecology, Faculty of Ecology and Environ- focused on its mycological characterization (Holec et al. mental Sciences, Technical University in Zvolen, T.G. Masaryka 24, 2018), the present work describes and discusses in detail SK-960 53 Zvolen, Slovakia the vegetation data of its northernmost isolated locality in 3 Mycological Department, National Museum, Cirkusová 1740, CZ-193 00 Praha 9, Czech Republic Białowieża in a comparison with more diverse localities * Corresponding author e-mail: [email protected] in Slovakia (the country hosting the highest number of This work is licensed under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 License 102 Plant and Fungal Systematics 64(1): 101–110, 2019 its localities worldwide), supplemented with notes on the (3%) even though this layer is more represented in the fungal communities at Slovak sites. neighbourhood. The herb layer showed average conditions without any significant indication of extreme or differ- Methods ent environmental conditions. Species of the herb layer were typical for a higher-level order (alliance Carpin- The vegetation of all known Slovak localities of P. fenzlii ion betuli in the Central European concept of the class (for details on their geography see Holec et al. 2018) Querco-Fagetea; Fig. 2A, lower left quadrant). Common was sampled by the first author from May 30 to June 1, species of such a hemiboreal forest are typical for both 2017 (Table 1). The Polish locality was sampled on Sep- broadleaved and coniferous woods, respectively. At the tember 14, 2016 during other study (Holec et al. 2019). same site there was a mixture of characteristic species All relevés covered the area around fallen trunks with of the alliances Carpinion betuli (class Querco-Fagetea) P. fenzlii. Sampling covered areas of ~250 m2. The exact and Piceion excelsae (class Vaccinio-Piceetea): Oxalis coordinates are not published here, in view of the need acetosella, Gymnocarpium dryopteris, Maianthemum for strict nature conservation (protection of rare fun- bifolium, Dryopteris dilatata, Milium effusum, Festuca gal communities from mushroom pickers), but can be gigantea and Stellaria holostea. The occurrence of nitro- obtained from the authors on request. We sampled the tree phytes (Urtica dioica, Geranium robertianum) and clear- (E3), shrub (E2) and herb (E1) layers separately using the cut species like Rubus idaeus shows concurrent human Braun-Blanquet phytosociological approach (Kent 2012). and animal influences on the composition and structure of Cover-abundance of individual species was estimated the forest stand both in the past (coppicing, opening) and on a modified ten-degree Domin-Hadač ordinal scale: at present (overgrazing by wild game, which is currently r (rare, sterile, seedling), 1 (rare, fertile, few individuals, frequent in Białowieża). more seedlings, sapling), 2 (several individuals, cover In Slovakia, Pluteus fenzlii preferred closed canopy ~1% of relevé area), 3 (more individuals, cover up to of broadleaved forests (cover 60–80%) with dominance 2%), 4 (more individuals, vegetative dispersed, cover of Quercus cerris and Carpinus betulus, and adjacent up to 5%), 5 (cover 6–15%), 6 (16–25%), 7 (26–50%), Quercus robur agg., Q. petraea agg. and Tilia cordata 8 (51–75%), 9 (76–100%). Plant names follow Euro+Med (Table 1, Fig. 3). The shrub layer was relatively open (2006–). Names of syntaxa follow Jarolímek et al. (2008) (0–25%), with tree layer species and/or meso- xero- and Matuszkiewicz et al. (2012). philous shrubs forming self-sustaining bushes along the For comparison of our vegetation relevés with the syn- edges (alliance Prunion spinosae, class Rhamno-Prune- thesis of higher units of deciduous forests in Slovakia, we tea), such as Crataegus monogyna, C. laevigata, Rosa compiled a frequency table (Table 1). Diagnostic, constant canina agg. and Ligustrum vulgare. Cover of the herb and dominant species status and values were taken from layer varied between 1% and 60%. The average number Jarolímek & Šibík (2008). Diagnostic taxa are ordered of herb species per relevé was 24.6. Some characteristic in decreasing value of fidelity (Phi coefficient Φ > 0.24) species (dominant and/or frequent) are important indi- to display taxa with the best diagnostic capacity (Φ > cators. The dominant grasses are typical of broadleaved 0.5, Chytrý et al. 2002). Constant taxa have a percentage forests (class Querco-Fagetea) and have a wide ecological frequency of occurrence of more than 25% for classes niche: Poa nemoralis, Brachypodium sylvaticum, Dactylis and more than 40% for alliances, marked “c”. Dominant glomerata subsp. lobata and Melica uniflora. Similarly, taxa (bolded) have abundance higher than 50% in at least the very frequent forbs Moehringia trinervia, Veronica 3% of the relevés. chamaedrys and Geranium robertianum occur in var- Unconstrained gradient analysis was computed to ious forest units. Mesophilous and meso- to eutrophic visualize the positions of diagnostic species in Canoco shade-tolerant hemicryptophytes played an adjacent role 5 (ter Braak & Šmilauer 2012). Individual localities and in the undergrowth (Fig. 2A, upper left quadrant; Viola centroids of higher vegetation units were passively pro- reichenbachiana, Fragaria vesca, Lamium galeobdolon, jected to the ordination biplot. Pulmonaria officinalis). The group of diagnostic species Fungal communities are discussed with respect to of hornbeam, scree and beech woods (Melica uniflora, Fellner (1984, 1987, 1988) and Šmarda (1972). Lists of Galium schultesii, Lamium galeobdolon, Galium odora- fungal species from Slovak localities of P. fenzlii were tum, Mycelis muralis) was present only on a deep scree compiled by the second author in collaboration with local slope (Mäsiarsky bok Reserve).