Lentinus squarrosulus and Polyporus grammocephalus: Newly Domesticated, Wild Edible Macrofungi from the Philippines

Lentinus squarrosulus and Polyporus grammocephalus are wild, edible macrofungi utilized as food by the indigenous Aeta tribes in Botolan, Zambales, Philippines. Domestication of these wild edible species is thus necessary to render these fungi available all year round for food and other purposes. In this study, different locally available culture media from natural sources, grain spawning materials and bagged substrates, with combinations of rice straw and sawdust formulations, were evaluated for the mycelial growth and fructification of these two edible macrofungi. Results showed that secondary mycelial growth was observed best on coconut water-gelatin medium. Sorghum seeds and/or corn grits also yielded very luxuriant mycelial growth at the shortest incubation period of 6 d for L. squarrosulus and 7 d for P. grammocephalus. Rice straw-sawdust formulation (g) at 100:400 had the highest biological efficiency (7.83%) in L. squarrosulus. In contrast, rice straw-sawdust formulation (g) at 400:100 had the highest biological efficiency (2.91%) in P. grammocephalus. Both L. squarrosulus and P. grammocephalus are new additions to the record of successfully domesticated wild edible macrofungi in the Philippines. Key Words: edible macrofungi, fruiting body production, grain spawns, Lentinus squarrosulus, mushroom culture, mycelial growth, Polyporus grammocephalus