Ectomycorrhizal fungi from Lagunas de Montebello National Park, Chiapas

Lagunas de Montebello National Park is a protected natural area located in Chiapas, Mexico. Among the vegetation types of the park are pine, oak and montane cloud forests, which host rich communities of ectomycorrhizal fungi. Knowledge about these organisms is poor. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the inventory of ectomycorrhizal fungi in the study area. Six explorations were carried out from 2004 to 2006, collecting fungi in 12 localities of the park. The completeness of the inventories was estimated, the species richness was calculated with the rarefaction-extrapolation method, an analysis of dissimilarity and another of ordering were carried out to determine the similarity between the sites based on the species found. In total, 671 specimens belonging to 93 taxa were collected. The most representative species based on their abundance were: Laccaria amethystina, Craterellus lutescens, Suillus decipiens, Craterellus ignicolor, Cantharellus minor, and Coltricia cinnamomea. The most similar sites were Encantada and Ensuefio lagoons. Six species are used for food and sale by the inhabitants of the area. Eight species (Amanita fuligineodisca, Cortinarius pholideus, Leccinum cartagoense, Lactarius costaricensis, Pseudocraterellus calyculus, Russula austromontana, Russula pulverulenta y Russula versicatoria) which are new records to Mexico are illustrated.