Assessment Notes

Justification

Ganoderma pfeifferi is a rare European wood-inhabiting species occurring mostly on Quercus and Fagus confined to thermophilous broadleaved forests. These forests are decreasing because of natural and anthropogenic reasons, and we can suspect past and future declines in this species due to this habitat decline. The species is mainly threatened by logging, removal of coarse woody debris, deforestation and other changes of habitats and traditional land use, i.e. clear-cutting, replacement of mosaic forests into monoculture of similar-aged stands. The scale of this habitat loss in area and quality is suspected to be approaching 30% in a 50 year time span (maximum three generation time period) including past, present and future. The species is therefore assessed as Near Threatened under criteria A2c+3c+4c.

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Taxonomic notes

Ganoderma pfeifferi is shown to be strictly European species by Fryssouly et al. (2020). Thus, we only consider the European records of G. pfeifferi and exclude records from Australia, Indonesia and rare ones from America, because they may indeed belong to different taxa.

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Geographic range

This strictly European species is distributed in the submediterranean to temperate zones in sub-oceanic to continental climates. It occurs from southern, western and central Europe, northwards to Denmark and southern Sweden, it is absent north of 60° latitude. Older records from Transcaucasia are considered to be erroneous following Fryssouli et al. (2020). We consider records from Australia, Indonesia and the United States to belong to different species.

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Population and Trends

In total over 2,200 records exist in GBIF (2021), but many of these could be misidentifications. Ganoderma pfeifferi is mainly associated with Quercus and Fagus, and more rarely with other trees. Habitat types dominated by these trees are constantly and evidently decreasing because of natural and anthropogenic reasons (see Janssen et al. 2016). The scale of habitat loss in area and quality is tentatively thought to be approaching 30% in a 50 year time span including the past, present and future (maximum three generation time period; Dahlberg and Mueller 2011), and population decline are suspected to be of a similar order.

Population Trend: decreasing

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Habitat and Ecology

Ganoderma pfeifferi prefers warm-summer forests within the Fagus and Quercus range. It is lignicolous and grows preferentially on old coarse living trees or recently dead trunks of Fagus and Quercus, as well as on lying trunks and stumps. It is also found on Acer, Aesculus, Prunus, Pyrus, Salix and Ulmus. Besides its occurrence in beech and oak forests, it sometimes grows on old trees in parks.

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Threats

Near-natural, broad-leaved forest habitats have declined during the last centaury due to either 1) changed forest management such as clear-cutting, replacement of mosaic forest types into monoculture of similar-aged stands, and 2) removal of coarse woody debris and thus of the host substrate. The species and its fruitbodies may also be found in and on planted trees where, however, it does not persist for long due to safety measures such as tree felling. Harvesting of the fruitbodies for tea as a diet supplement may locally impact this species, reducing its spore dispersal potential.

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Conservation Actions

The actions suggested to conserve the species are mainly on protecting areas from logging, appropriate forest management and restoration of habitats including leaving of old trees and logs in situ. Phylogenetic studies dealing with the non-European material are needed to assess the actual species boundaries.

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Use and Trade

A lot of Ganoderma species are used in traditional medicine in Asia but increasingly also in Europe. So Ganoderma pfeiffei is increasingly collected for use as a dietary supplement.

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Source and Citation

Perini, C., Krisai-Greilhuber, I., Kalucka, I.L., Saar, I. & Jordal, J. 2024. Ganoderma pfeifferi. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2024: e.T229076276A247853014. .Accessed on 29 October 2024

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• Country occurrence