Lepiota (Pers.) Gray, Nat. Arr. Brit. Pl. (London) 1: 601 (1821)
Index Fungorum Number: IF 17938; Facesoffungi number: FoF14344
Note – Lepiota, which belongs to the family Agaricaceae, consists of 450 white-spored species distributed across six sections, which were classified based on their morphological characters and distribution in tropical and temperate zones (Dennis 1952, He et al. 2019a, Vellinga 2001). According to molecular studies, the species and sections are not monophyletic (Vellinga 2003, Liang et al. 2011, Hou & Ge 2020, Hyde et al. 2020b, c). The genus is studied rarely in Laos, and three species have been recorded from Laos, including Lepiota aureofulvella, L. citrophylla, L. macrocarpa and L. thailandica (Sysouphanthong et al. 2017, 2020).
Species of the genus Lepiota (Pers.) Gray (1821: 601) are saprobes in nature (Singer 1986; Vellinga 2004) and globally distributed from tropical to temperate areas and are infrequent in deserts and arctic-alpine habitats (Vellinga 2004) with more than 500 species worldwide (Singer 1986, Kirk et al. 2008, Razaq et al. 2012; Nawaz et al. 2013; Qasim et al. 2015; Sysouphanthong et. al 2016; Bashir et al. 2020; Niazi et al. 2021), including more than 30 species reported from Pakistan (Ahmad et al. 1997; Kirk et al. 2008; Kumar & Manimohan 2009; Liang & Yang 2011; Nawaz et al. 2013; Razaq et al. 2012; Qasim et al. 2015; Qasim et al. 2016; Bashir et al. 2020; Niazi et al. 2021). The genus Lepiota is characterized by its white to pale, mostly dextrinoid basidiospores that have different shapes, i.e., ellipsoid to spurred, fusiform or penguin-shaped, various pileus coverings, ranging from hymeniderm, cutis, trichoderm, epithelium, a regular hymenophoral trama and usually the presence of clamp connections (Candusso & Lanzoni 1990; Vellinga 2003). Pileus covering and basidiospore shape are the key characteristics that divide the genus Lepiota into several sections (Vellinga 2001a). Species within the genus Lepiota show quite close affinities on morphological analysis and have further been divided into several sections based on molecular data. Lepiota species have been supported by molecular studies indicating that the genus is polyphyletic, and thorough work focused on multigene phylogenetic analyses has placed the members of the genus in the relevant sections. (Sysouphanthong et al. 2011). However, there are still a lot of species that need to be identified and described.