Durianella, a new gasteroid genus of boletes from Malaysia

Abstract

Hydnangium echinulatum, described originally from a single specimen collected in Malaysia, has been recollected, and based on morphological and molecular characters is recognized as representing a new gasteroid genus of boletes with affinities to the Boletineae, herein named Durianella. Diagnostic features include an epigeous, ovoid, pyramidal-warted, durian fruit-like basidiome with gelatinized glebal locules and a columella that turns indigo blue upon exposure, and subglobose basidiospores with long, curved, thin-walled and collapsible spines. A redescription, phylogenetic analysis and comparison with allied taxa are presented.

• Agaricomycotina
• Basidiomycota
• Boletineae
• molecular phylogenetics
• taxonomy

This research was financially supported in part by National Science Foundations grants DEB-0118776 (PEET) to D.E. Desjardin, DEB-0444531 to M. Binder, and DEB-0508716 to A.W. Wilson. We thank Dr S. Vikineswary (University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur) for providing material transfer agreements, Leho Tedersoo for providing an unpublished sequence (EcM L2455 Intsia, now published as GenBank accession number AM412262) and Dr Roy Halling (New York Botanical Garden) for helpful comments in his critical review of the manuscript and for providing an additional specimen and photograph of D. echinulata. A special thank-you to the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, for allowing us to use their SEM facility and to Scott Serata (CAS) for producing the SEM of basidiospores.