The threatened status of microorganisms in China

‘Red Data Lists’ of endangered fungi as well as other micro-organisms cannot be provided at the present time because such a status and their extinction caused by habitat destruction is unclear. The exhaustion status of wild edible and pharmaceutical fungi resources, due to improper picking, is also unknown, For example, Cordyceps sinensis is only distributed in high elevations of the Qingzang Plateau, with a yield of 20,000 kg per year in the 1950’s. Yields have decreased rapidly in recent years due to improper picking and, sometimes, other species of Cordyceps such as C. hawkesii have been faked by businessmen. Tricholoma monglicum, a famous wild edible fungus in north China, has nearly disappeared from the Zhangjiakou area, and its production gradually decreased in some areas of the Hulunbuir grassland, because of excessive picking and overgrazing. Tricholoma matsutake, another famous edible fungus in the Changbai Mountains and Xiao Hinggan Ling (Lesser Khingan) Mountains in northeastern China, and pharmaceutical Puffballs, such as Calvatia lilacina, has also met with the same disaster.