Terrestrial plant species on islands have a long history of study to determine how they evolved and what explains their levels of endemicity, but studies on fungi are lacking. Here, we examine: 1) how percent endemism of non-lichenized class Agaricomycetes; hereafter, “mushrooms” compares to angiosperms, ferns, bryophytes, and lichens from oceanic islands/archipelagos; 2) whether endemic mushrooms evolved from an ancestor diversifying into multiple species after island colonization (cladogenesis) or over time evolved into a single endemic species unique from its ancestral mainland counterpart (anagenesis); and 3) if mushroom percent endemism and cladogenesis are correlated to geographic variables that help explain these phenomena in other species groups.

Checklists of mushrooms and other species groups from seven oceanic islands/archipelagos were compared. Having multiple endemic congeners from a single island/archipelago was used to infer cladogenesis versus anagenesis in endemic mushrooms. Pearson’s correlation coefficients were calculated between an island/archipelago’s percent endemism and percent cladogenesis, and their distance to the nearest mainland, area, maximum elevation, and latitude from the equator.

These data contain information on mushrooms, angiosperms, ferns, bryophytes, and lichens from the Hawaiian Islands, Galápagos, Canary Islands, Madeira, Azores, Cabo Verde, and Christmas Island.

See associated README file, "Metadata" tab within supplementary files, and "Methods" section of the paper for additional information.

See associated README file, "Metadata" tab within supplementary files, and "Methods" section of the paper for additional information.