Species diversity, taxonomic classification and ecological habits of polypore fungi in China

Polypore fungi are an important part of forest ecosystems. In the last decade, the taxonomic status and species number of polypore fungi have changed greatly, and many new taxa have been discovered. China is one of the countries with the most abundant and diverse polypore fungi in the world, and a total of 1,214 polypore fungal species were reported here. This study lists the polypore fungi with their diversity, taxonomic status, habitats, geographical distributions, and molecular data. All the polypore fungi in China belong to the phylum Basidiomycota, subphylum Agaricomycotina, and class Agaricomycetes, including 11 orders, 55 families, and 266 genera. The orders Polyporales and Hymenochaetales are dominant, and the families Polyporaceae and Hymenochaetaceae are dominant. The overall distribution trend of polypore fungi in China shows that more species are distributed in the south and fewer are distributed in the north. In addition, different nutritional modes of polypore fungi have different preferences for host species, with white-rot fungi preferring angiosperm trees and brown-rot fungi preferring gymnosperm trees.