Northern species of earth tongue genus Thuemenidium revisited, considering morphology, ecology and molecular phylogeny

Abstract

Thuemenidium is a small earth tongue genus with three recognized white-spored species. Within Thuemenidium, T. atropurpureum and T. arenarium have been reported only from the northern hemisphere while T. berteroi is known solely in the southern hemisphere. We reviewed the ecology, examined the morphology and inferred the systematic positions of northern species of Thuemenidium from LSU-rDNA gene phylogeny of 48 taxa in Pezizomycotina including recent collections. Our results suggest that Thuemenidium in its current sense is polyphyletic and that T. atropurpureum, closely related to Microglossum and Leotia species, is a member of Leotiaceae (Helotiales, Leotiomycetes). Our phylogeny placed the other northern species, T. arenarium, in Geoglossaceae (Geoglossales, Geoglossomycetes), retaining genus Thuemenidium, pending further investigation.

• ecology
• Geoglossomycetes
• Leotiomycetes
• phylogeny
• Thuemenidium

The authors thank two anonymous reviewers for their constructive suggestions and le Cercle des mycologues de Montréal for supplying North American specimens of T. atropurpureum for this study. Performance of this research was facilitated by a Yale Endowed Fellowship to ZW. Additional financial support for research was provided by Yale University to JPT.