- Proposed
- Under Assessment
- Preliminary Assessed
- LCAssessed
- 5Published
Macrocybe gigantea (Massee) Pegler & Lodge
- Scientific name
- Macrocybe gigantea
- Author
- (Massee) Pegler & Lodge
- Common names
- IUCN Specialist Group
Mushroom, Bracket and Puffball- Kingdom
- Fungi
- Phylum
- Basidiomycota
- Class
- Agaricomycetes
- Order
- Agaricales
- Family
- Tricholomataceae
- Assessment status
- Assessed
- Preliminary Category
- LC
- Proposed by
- Atik Retnowati
- Assessors
- Atik Retnowati
- Comments etc.
- Atik Retnowati, Serena ML Lee, Gregory Mueller
Assessment Notes
Justification
The species is widespread paleotropical species reported from Pakistan though Indonesia into Australia and Japan. It commonly found in some parts of its range. The species plays an ecological role as a saprotroph growing on a wide variety of substrata from lawns, to wood, to elephant dung. It is commonly collected for human consumption in a number of countries. The development of cultivation has reduced the threat of over harvesting. It is assessed as Least Concern.
Taxonomic notes
Macrocye gigantea is a big fruiting body mushroom with pileus up 35 cm diam and grows in a big caespitose cluster. Tricholoma giganteum is a synonym of M. gigantea, but the name is still being used by some people. Macrocybe gigantea is similar to M. crassa, and it is approved by molecular evidence.
Why suggested for a Global Red List Assessment?
Macrocybe gigantea is one of the edible mushrooms in the world. The species currently grow in several Asian countries.
Geographic range
The species is widespread paleotropical species reported from Pakistan though Indonesia into Australia and Japan. It commonly found in some parts of its range, but In Indonesia, the species was found in two locations in East Java, and there is no report from other provinces. It can be found growing in local people’s yards. In India. In Nepal, it was collected from Kathmandu.
Population and Trends
The species is widespread and common in parts of its range.
Population Trend: Uncertain
Habitat and Ecology
The species plays an ecological role as a saprotroph. In India, it was reported to grow widely in summer. M. gigantea grows sometimes in shady or grassy areas. In addition, it has been found growing on elephant dung in Kerala state in India. In Pakistan, it grows gregariously on decayed woods of Dalbergia sisoo. Razaq et al.(2017) mentioned that this species has been reported from the West Bengal plains of India where the maximum temperature reaches 39°C while in the Pakistani plains this temperature reaches up to 50°C.
Threats
Because of it’s broad distribution and non specific habitat, there are no clear threats to the global population.
Conservation Actions
No action identified.
Research needed
As an edible mushroom, Macrocybe gigantea is a potential species to be cultivated. Finding a good strain of mushroom that is well adapted to the ASIAN counties climate is highly needed. In addition, it is important for commercial cultivation. Prakasam et al. (2011) mentioned that this mushroom can be best cultivated using paddy straw substrate through out the year in sunken blue poly houses (250 gauge thickness of siplaulin) with three feet depth to maintain a temperature range of 30-35◦C and relative humidity of more than 70 % during the cropping period.
Use and Trade
Many local people in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Thailand and other countries consume the mushroom. It is cultivated in several countries.
Bibliography
Razaq A, Nawaz R, &Khalid; AN. 2016. An Asian edible mushroom, Macrocybe gigantea: its distribution and ITS-rDNA based phylogeny. Mycosphere 7(4): 525–530, Doi 10.5943/mycosphere/7/4/11.
Verma R.K, Thakur AK & Pandro V. 2017. Diversity of macro-fungi in central India-X: Edible mushrooms Macrocybe crassa and Macrocybe lobayensis. Van Sangyan 4(12): 39-49.
