Clavulina ruchengensis X. F. Liu & P. Zhang, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Liu, Xiang-Fen
name: Deng, Peng-Tao
name: Wang, Xiao-Yan
name: Zhang, Ping
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Fungi
Basidiomycota
Agaricomycetes
Cantharellales
Cantharellaceae
Clavulina
Clavulina ruchengensis

description: Clavulina ruchengensis X.F. Liu & P. Zhang, sp. nov. (Figs. 1, 2)
MycoBank:851419
Diagnosis:—Differs from Clavulina reae by having white to gray-white stipes, sharper branch tips, and shorter basidia.
Holotype:— CHINA. Hunan Province, Rucheng County. 28°6′12″N, 113°1′55″E, 400 m, 22 June 2020, leg. P. Zhang (MHHNU10346).
Etymology:—ruchengensis refers to “Rucheng County” from where the holotype was collected.
Description:— Basidiomata coralloid, gregarious in caespitose clusters, 3–6 cm tall, 1–3 cm broad. Branching 2–6 times, flattened, dichotomous to polychotomous, ash gray when young, becoming gray [1B1–1C2] with age, branch tips sharply acuminate, cristate, deep brown [5F4]. Stipes clear, 0.8–3 cm long, subcylindrical or flattened, smooth, white to gray white [1A1–3C1]. Hymenium amphigenous, gray [1C2], basidiocarp surface occasionally with longitudinal corrugation. Odor is unapparent.
Basidiospores [75/6/3] (6.2–)6.5–9.2(–9.7) × (4.5–)4.8–7.2(–7.6) μm [Q = (1.00–)1.07–1.64(–1.82), Q m = 1.33 ± 0.15], subglobose to oblong-ellipsoid, smooth, thin walled, inamyloid, with a hilar appendix 0.4–1 μm long, with one or several oleiferous guttules nearly suffused with spores. Basidia (26–)29–43(–45.5)×4.8–6.8(–8) μm, clavate to subcylindrical, colorless and transparent, with numerous granular contents and guttules, basal clamps occasionally present, postpartal septa observed in some basidia; two sterigmata on per basidium, cornute, 3.2–6.2 μm long. Basidioles abundant, subclavate to subcylindrical, widespread among basidia. Tramal hyphae smooth, thin walled, up to 13 μm wide, some of the inflated tramal hyphae up to 19.8 μm wide; clamp connections abundant. Basidia and hyphae with oleiferous contents. Cystidia absent.
Habitat and distribution:—Gregarious in humus layers on soil under mingled forest, basidiomata occur in summer (June). To date, only known from Hunan Province in central China.
Additional materials examined:— CHINA. Hunan Province, Rucheng County. 28°6′12″N, 113°1′55″E, 400m, 22 June 2020, MHHNU10347, MHHNU10349.
Phylogenetic analyses
The alignment of concatenated sequences, which comprised 1,799 bp in total, was used for the BI and ML analyses. The matrix comprised 170 sequences (82 ITS and 88 nrLSU) representing 55 Clavulina taxa and two outgroup taxa (Table 1). The BI phylogeny (not shown) was extremely similar in topology to that of the ML tree. Thus, only the ML tree is presented in Fig. 3. Support values from the bootstrap analysis (BS) and posterior probabilities (PP) that were greater than or equal to 50% and 0.95, respectively, are shown at the relevant nodes. In both the ML and BI phylogenetic reconstructions, the three newly collected accessions formed a distinct, monophyletic lineage within the Clavulina clade. In combination with the distinct morphology of the accessions compared with all previously described species of Clavulina, it was concluded that the three accessions represented an unnamed species of Clavulina.
description: Published as part of Liu, Xiang-Fen, Deng, Peng-Tao, Wang, Xiao-Yan & Zhang, Ping, 2024, A new edible Clavulina species from Hunan Province, China, pp. 169-180 in Phytotaxa 661 (2) on pages 173-176, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.661.2.4, http://zenodo.org/record/13218380