Journal of Threatened Taxa |
www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 April 2021 | 13(5): 18398–18402
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893
(Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.6552.13.5.18398-18402
#6552 | Received 10 August 2020 | Final
received 10 September 2020 | Finally accepted 11 April 2021
First report of the
fleshy mushroom Trichaleurina javanica (Rehm) M. Carbone et al. (Ascomycota: Pezizales: Chorioactidaceae) from
southern India
Munuswamy Kumar 1, Sekar Nithya 2 & Antony Agnes Kayalvizhi 3
1,2,3 Department of Botany,
Madras Christian College, Tambaram, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600059, India.
1 kumarmccbotany@gmail.com (corresponding
author) , 2 nithyasekar19@gmail.com, 3 agnescruz4@gmail.com
Editor: Anonymity requested. Date of publication: 26 April 2021 (online & print)
Citation: Kumar, M., S. Nithya & A.A. Kayalvizhi (2021). First report of the fleshy mushroom Trichaleurina javanica
(Rehm) M. Carbone et al. (Ascomycota: Pezizales: Chorioactidaceae) from southern India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 13(5): 18398–18402. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.6552.13.5.18398-18402
Copyright: © Kumar et al. 2021. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
License. JoTT
allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of this article in any
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Funding: None.
Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: The authors thank the
principal R.W. Alexander Jesudasan for constant
support and encouragement; former head Dr. M. Baluswami; Dr. D. Narasimhan; and
the present head Dr. G.A.I. Ebenezer, Department of
Botany, MCC for providing laboratory facility.
We wish to acknowledge DST-FIST for financial support to the department.
Abstract: Trichaleurina javanica was collected from
tropical dry evergreen forests, located in the southeastern
coastal belt of India. This is the first report of the species from southern
India. Trichaleurina
javanica is a fleshy and rubbery cup-like
mushroom, brownish-grey in colour with a brilliant yellowish-orange disc. The identification is supported using
morphological and microscopical characters.
It is one of the less known wild edible mushrooms belonging to
Ascomycota.
Keywords: Ascomycetous
mushroom, Ice Apple Mushroom, rubbery cup, tropical dry evergreen forests, wild
edible mushroom.
Trichaleurina javanica, an ascomycetous
mushroom, called Ice Apple Mushroom is a
fleshy and rubbery cup like mushroom which is brownish-grey in colour with a
brilliant yellowish-orange disc. Trichaleurina is a tropical and subtropical
species which is complex and was not well resolved for its identity using well
supported classical data until recently.
It was separated recently from its allies Sarcosoma
and Galiella and re-established as a
separate genus recently (Carbone et al. 2013a,b) based on the phylogenetic
evidence.
The most close allies
Galiella with type Galiella
rufa (Schwein.) Nannf. & Korf., is an American species (Carbone et al.
2015) but also reported from China (Cao et al. 1992), Malaysia (Chong et al.
2007; Abdullah & Rusea 2009) but poorly known
from India (Pant & Prasad 2008). Sharma and Rawla
(1982) reported G. rufa from India but due to
unavailability of the specimen, identity remained doubtful and it is later
mentioned as not recorded in India (Pant & Prasad 2008). Whereas, other species of Galiella
namely G. celebica is reported from India
(Pant & Prasad 2008) and was later mentioned as Trichaleurina
javanica by Patel et al. (2019).
The genera Galiella is considered a synonym of Sarcosoma Casp. by Le Gal
(1958, 1960) and Boedijn (1959) while many other
mycologists from Korf (1957) to Pant & Prasad (2008) considered it as a
separate genus. Recently, Carbone et al.
(2013a,b, 2015) proved Galiella is an
independent genus in the family Sarcosomataceae Kobayasi with at least two species G. javanica and G. celebica
which were formerly included in the same genus.
Later, the phylogentic studies on Sacrocosomataceae
revealed that G. javanica and G. celebica cannot be grouped under the genera and were
therefore shifted to the genera Trichaleurina (Carbone
et al. 2013a). Although, the name Trichaleurina
was first used by Rehm (1903) as an infrageneric rank within Aleurina Massee., it was later raised to the genus
level (Rehm 1914) by validating it with the new (and only) species Trichaleurina polytricha
collected from the Philippines. But
much later (Carbone et al. 2013b), the genus Trichaleurina
was established with well supported morphological and molecular evidence with
at least two clearly defined species—T.
javanica and T. tenuispora. Moreover, Carbone et al. (2015) also clearly
distinguished G. rufa by giving a detailed
description of the micro-morphological characters for clear identification in
future.
This Galiella complex (until recently) mushroom which is
mustard yellow to light tan in colour is known as ‘Mata Rusa’
(deer eyes) in Sabah, by Dusuns and ‘Mata Kerbau’ (buffalo eyes) in Sarawak, Malaysia (Abdullah &
Rusea 2009) was consumed and prized in the
market. In India, we found the same
mushroom is consumed raw by the Oorali tribe of Sathyamangalam forest (not reported earlier). This is not reported as an edible fungi from
any other part of India.
Mushroom diversity of tropical dry evergreen
forests (TDEF) vegetation is poorly reported (Kumar 2020). The actual diversity of these regions is much
more than what is known, because TDEFs are among the highly neglected region
for mushroom biodiversity studies. The
species reported in this study was collected during mushroom biodiversity
studies in the TDEF region of southern India being done for the past seven
years (2012–2019).
Materials & Methods
The specimens were
found on dead and decaying wood (Delonix) and
collected from Madras Christian College campus, Chennai, India. The campus is a green, extended over 365
acres with TDEF vegetation. The
specimens were cut from the stump in all stages starting from initial fruiting
to mature stage. Specimens from the field were wrapped in
paper covers. They were dried at 70◦C
for 24 hours and sealed in polythene covers along with their label and
naphthalene balls for further examination (Kaviyarasan
et al. 2009). The microscopic structures
were examined in the dried specimens which were as revived in 5% KOH. Stains such as phloxine
and Melzer’s reagent were used to study other details (Largent 1986). The specimens were deposited in the Madras
Christian College Herbarium (MCCH) with accession MCCHF1601, MCCHF1920 for
future reference. They were identified
with proper keys and manuals (Cao et al. 1992; Pant & Prasad 2008; Carbone
et al. 2013a,b, 2015; Patel etal. 2019).
Results & Discussion
In the present study
the fruit bodies of Trichaleurina javanica were collected throughout the Madras Christian
College Campus. They were always
collected on dead and decaying wood.
Trichaleurina javanica
(Rehm)
M. Carbone, Agnello & P. Alvarado (2013)
(Image 1; Figure 1)
≡ Sarcosoma
javanicum Rehm, Hedwigia
32: 226 (1893)
≡ Galiella
javanica (Rehm) Nannf.
& Korf, Mycologia 49 (1): 108 (1957)
= Urnula
philippinarum Rehm, Leaflets of Philippine Botany
6: 2281 (1914)
= Trichaleurina
polytricha Rehm, Leaflets of Philippine Botany 6:
2234 (1914)
= Sarcosoma
novoguineense Ramsb.:
186 (1917), fide Boedijn (1932) and Le Gal (1959)
= Sarcosoma
decaryi Pat., Mémoirs
de l´Académie Malgache 6:
37 (1928), fide Le Gal (1953)
Macroscopic features
Sporocarps occur in
troops, clusters, or singly. Fruiting
body cup-shaped, cup curved inwards during initial stage, leathery. Inner tissue gelatinous, jelly like,
translucent and rubbery, smooth, outer surface blackish-brown to grey brown in
colour, rough, velvety, smooth or wrinkled, 5.2–7.8 cm wide and 5.5–6.5 cm
high, cylindric or tapering downwards, hairs sparse throughout the surface,
more hirsute hairs along the rim of the cup, at maturity the hairs not
significant, hymenial portion reddish-orange to
yellowish-orange, concave when young, at maturity the hymenial
region prominent, plane, convex and slightly decurving . Margin entire, at maturity sparsely
folded. Inside the cup below the hymenial region cavity present, cavity may be partitioned
with two locule, gelatinous tissue getting reduced
towards the base. Cavity filled with
mild gelatinous fluid, fluid colourless and odourless. As much as 20ml of fluid accumulate in the
cavity. At initial stage and also at
maturity the fluid may not be present.
Microscopic features
Hymenium thick,
ascospores large, thin walled, with prominent oil guttules,
spores hyaline, inamyloid, elliptical, 30.9–35.8, 12.7–15.2 mm, tilted towards
right with two to three large prominent oil guttules
and few smaller guttules, ascospores at the tip are
smaller than those at the bottom. Asci
narrow, long, cylindrical, operculate, unitunicate, wall thick up to 1.5mm,
spores vertically arranged to the length of the asci, 374–388 ´ 8.1–8.3 mm, callose depositions found on the wall. Paraphyses filiform, extending beyond asci,
4–8 mm diameter, gradually tapering downwards, septate, septum not prominent,
septal wall thin, depositions present on the tip portion, wall not smooth,
uneven. Subhymenium,
pale or creamy, appears pseudoparanchymatous and
partially with gelatinized hyphae.
Hypothecium with gelatined hyphae with watery cavity, all hyphae septate
with visibly dark septum, thin, 3–6 mm diameter, sparsely branched, wall layer
are hyaline and has some warty ornamentation.
Hypothecium and excipulum separated with cavity. Excipulum rubbery with gelatinized hyphae and
towards outer dark brown hyphal aggregation present, some dark deposition on
the walls, wall layer dark, hyphae erect and septate with prominent dark septum,
tip blunt.
Specimen examined: MCCHF1601,
MCCHF1920, 19.viii.2016 and 29.x.2019, India, Tamil Nadu, Chennai, Madras
Christian College Campus, in troops (15–20 sporocarps), around MacPhail art center (12055’10.96”N
8007’18.91”E), coll. M. Kumar.
The specimen examined
shows similarity with the previously reported species mentioned from China,
Taiwan, Thailand, and Seychelles (Cao et al. 1992; Carbone et al. 2013b) with
slight variation in the morphological and microscopical dimensions. It was unable to compare with the Indian
species (Patel et al. 2019) because the report from Gujarat was not described
using micromorphological characters rather identified only by molecular
analysis.
The
morpho-microscopic examination in the present study includes the notable
characters such as gelatinous liquid: its presence and absence, quantity and
taste, presence of two locules in the fluid cavity,
septate hyphae of gelatinous excipulum, which were not recorded in the previous
reports (Cao et al. 1992; Pant & Prasad 2008; Carbone et al. 2013a,b,
2015).
Trichaleurina javanica
contains a mild salty sweet liquid which is similar to that of the liquid found
in palmyra palm fruit. During our collection it was also observed
that the sporocarp is vigorously fed by few larvae and common snail of this
region.
Since the species was
already reported by Pant & Prasad (2008) from the Kumoun
hills, Uttarakhand as Galiella celebica and by Patel et al. (2019) from Gujarat as Trichaleurina javanica,
this will be the first report for southern India.
For
figure & image - - click here
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