FRUITING OF ECTOMYCORRHIZAL BASIDIOMYCETES ON UNBURNED AND PRESCRIBEDBURNED HARD-PINE HARDWOOD PLOTS AFTER DROUGHT-BREAKING RAINFALLS ON THE ALLEGHENY MOUNTAINS OF SOUTHWESTERN VIRGINIA

A headfire upward along the crest to the peak of a foothill during Feb ruary 1988 had been prescribed to lower the possibility of a wildfire during the dry season on the Jefferson National Forest. Some surface l itter plus annual and perennial stems on one-half of a stand of Pinus pungens/P. rigida had been destroyed. Subsequent development of ectomy corrhizal sporophores of basidiomycetes was recorded regularly within equal areas of burned and unburned portions and within a nearby unburn ed stand of P. virginiana. Each plot had a few ectomycorrhizal hardwoo ds, mainly Quercus spp. First fruiting was noted under burned P. punge ns 3 weeks after a general rain in mid-July and after 4 weeks under bo th. By the end of November, when fruiting ceased, 138 separable taxa h ad been collected of which 95 had been identified. A list of the fungi and data on current and previously reported host associations, occurr ence on each of the substrates, times and frequencies of fruiting, per iodicity of genera, and variations in weather conditions are presented .