Pseudoplectania
Pseudoplectania is a genus of fungi in the family Sarcosomataceae. The genus contains 12 species. "Pseudoplectania ryvardenii" was described in 2012, while "Pseudoplectania carranzae" was transferred to the genus (from "Plectania") in 2013. Taxonomy. The genus was circumscribed by the German botanist Fuckel in 1870, who originally included the two species "P. nigrella" and "P. fulgens". The latter species was removed from the genus by Pier Andrea Saccardo in 1889, and made the type species of his newly created genus "Otidella" (now considered synonymous with "Caloscypha" as described by Boudier in 1885; "P. fulgens" is now "Caloscypha fulgens"). Saccardo  added the species "P. melania" and "P. stygia", the latter of which is thought to be synonymous with "P. nigrella." Phylogenetic analysis based on the DNA sequences of ribosomal RNA suggests that "Pseudoplectania" groups in a clade together with "Galiella", "Plectania", "Urnula", "Sarcosoma", and "Donadinia", and that it is most closely related to the latter genus. "Pseudoplectania" differs from "Plectania" mainly in spore shape—spherical in "Pseudoplectania" compared to ellipsoidal in "Plectania". The generic name means "false plectania". Description. The fruit bodies of "Plectania" fungi grow either in groups or scattered apart, with stems or without (sessile), and are large  and fleshy. They are covered on the external surfaces with short, slender, flexuous (bendy) and often coiled or twisted hairs that sometimes give the exterior of the cup a tomentose appearance—covered with dense, matted hairs. The spore-bearing cells, the asci, range in shape from cylindrical to club-shaped, and they are eight-spored. The spores are perfectly spherical, smooth, and hyaline (translucent). The paraphyses may be either straight or curved. Species. Twelve species are accepted in the genus: