Biodiversity in polypore fungi. A comparison between tropical Africa and America

Abstract

Tropical Africa and America have each about 400 species and 70 genera of polypore fungi. There are seven endemic genera in tropical America, three in Africa. The number of brown rotting species is low, only 3% in both areas, compared with about 25% in boreal conifer forests; 13% of the African polypores are endemic, no number is as yet known from tropical America. Amauroderma has an endemism of about 90% on both continents, which contrasts with other groups of polypores. In Phellinus there are about 60 species out of which about 60% are endemic in tropical America while the numbers are about 30 and 5% respectively in Africa. It is suggested that the reason for these differences is the isolated position of tropical America while Africa has been connected to tropical Asia through more or less continuous forests in previous geological periods.