Diversity of macrofungi and exploitation of edible mushroom resources in the National Park “Appennino Lucano, Val D'Agri, Lagonegrese” (Italy)

An investigation on the macrofungal diversity of the National Park “Appennino Lucano, Val D'Agri, Lagonegrese” (Basilicata, southern Italy) was carried out, together with an evaluation of wild edible mushrooms in agro-forest ecosystems and their possible exploitation as a new source of food and revenue in rural and under-developed areas of this region. An unpublished list of 249 mushroom taxa (229 <i>Basidiomycota</i> and 20 <i>Ascomycota</i>), mostly belonging to the genera <i>Tricholoma</i>, <i>Tuber</i>, <i>Russula</i>, <i>Amanita</i>, <i>Boletus</i>, <i>Lactarius</i>, <i>Mycena</i>, <i>Agaricus</i>, <i>Clitocybe</i> and <i>Hygrophorus</i>, growing in this important natural area is provided together with ecological characterization of the recorded specimens. <i>Inonotus obliquus</i> is a new record for Basilicata, while <i>Mycena bresadolana</i> is reported for the first time from southern Italy. The presence of <i>Amaurodon mustialaënsis</i>, an extremely rare species of the northern hemisphere reported for the first time on white fir, is noteworthy. Among the previous findings, 116 species of edible mushrooms are presented and discussed in view of their relative abundance and edibility.