Russulales, one of the major orders of macrofungi, encompasses some mushroom-forming genera which are saprobes, parasites, or mycorrhizae and are responsible for the key functioning of any terrestrial ecosystem. This pictorial manual illustrates the diversity of mycobiota in this order including 73 species belonging to the genera Bondarzewia, Hericium, Russula, Lactarius, and Lactifluus which were encountered by the author in Sikkim (India) in recent years. Out of these 73 species, 44 were established as new to science from this country during 2011 to 2021. The genus Russula was the largest genus with 36 species followed by Lactarius with 23 species, Lactifluus with 10 species, Hericium with three species, and Bondarzewia with only a single species. Amateurs, mushroom hunters, professional mycologists, conservationists, foresters and policymakers will benefit from the morphological descriptions, macro chemical colour reactions, field photographs, micromorphological line drawings, taxonomical information, phylogenetic estimations and user-friendly keys for easy separation of species, presented in this book.
1. Introduction
2. Methodology
3. Morphology and technical terms
4. Study area
5. Systematic enumeration
6. Phylogenetic estimations
7. References
8. Index