Loweomyces fractipes

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***Loweomyces fractipes*** is a species of poroid fungus in the family Steccherinaceae, and the type species of the genus *Loweomyces*. It is a widely distributed species, found in North America, Europe, Central America, South America, and Korea.

## Taxonomy

The fungus was originally described in 1872 as *Polypores fractipes* by Miles Berkeley and Moses Ashley Curtis. The type specimens had been sent to Berkeley by American botanist Henry William Ravenel. It has been transferred to many different polypore genera in its taxonomic history. William Murrill moved it to *Grifola* in 1904, while it was later transferred to *Abortiporus* (Bondartsev, 1959), *Heteroporus* (Fidalgo, 1969), and *Spongipellis* (Kotlaba & Pouzar, 1976). In 1982, Walter Jülich transferred it to *Loweomyces*, originally a subgenus of *Spongipellis* but elevated to generic status by Jülich.

Heterotypic synonyms (having different types) of *Loweomyces fractipes* include *Abortiporus tropicalis* Murrill (1910), *Polyporus delicatus* Berk. & M.A.Curtis (1872), and *Polyporus humilis* Peck (1874).

## Description

The fruit bodies of *Loweomyces fractipes* can be quite variable in form. The stipe is placed centrally to laterally, dimidiate with fan- to kidney-shaped caps or almost effused-reflexed, 1–4 cm wide, 1–5 mm thick, soft when fresh, brittle when dry. The upper surface of the cap is white in young specimens, but becomes yellowish with age, at first finely tomentose, with age more adpressed and semi-glabrous, often somewhat wrinkled, usually azonate. When the stipe is present it is white to yellowish, measuring up to 4 cm long, and it is cylindric to flattened and expanded towards the cap. The colour of the pore surface is white to cream, and consists of tiny, angular pores numbering 4–5 per millimetre. The context in cap and stipe are white and comprise two layers: a hard inner or lower layer that is covered with a much looser layer, which may be agglutinated on the surface with age. The tube layer is the same colour as the pore surface, and up to 3 mm thick.

 File:Loweomyces fractipes 229111.jpg
The hyphal system is monomitic, containing only generative hyphae. These hyphae have clamp connections, which in the subhymenium and trama are thin-walled and 3–5 µm in diameter. In the context and especially the stipe, the hyphae are much more thick-walled and reminiscent of skeletal hyphae, but with scattered clamps. These hyphae are interpreted by Ryvarden as sclerified generative hyphae. Cystidia are variably present in the hymenium. They are often difficult to observe during microscopy. Their shape is ventricose to cylindrical, and they are thin-walled, measuring 15–25 by 5–6.5 µm. The basidia are broadly club-shaped, and have four sterigmata. They have a basal clamp, and measure 15–20 by 6–9 µm. The shape of the spores ranges from broadly ellipsoid to egg-shaped to more or less spherical, and measure 4.5–6 by 4–5 µm. They are slightly thick-walled, smooth, hyaline (translucent), and are non-reactive with Melzer's reagent.

## Habitat and distribution

*Loweomyces fractipes* is found in Europe, North America, Costa Rica, South America (Brazil), and Korea.

## References

1. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `Berkeley 1872`
2. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `Murrill 1904`
3. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `Fidalgo 1969`
4. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `Kotlába 1976`
5. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `Jülich 1982`
6. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `MycoBank: Loweomyces fractipes`
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `Ryvarden 2014`
8. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `Mata 2007`
9. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `Pires 2017`
10. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `Kim 2016`

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