Revision of taxonomic concept and systematic position of some Clavariaceae species

Abstract

A taxonomic and nomenclatural revision of some representatives of Clavariaceae is presented based on extensive collecting in central and western Europe. Five species originally described from Europe are identified, redescribed and delimited: Clavaria fragilis, Ramariopsis crocea, R. corniculata, R. helvola and R. pulchella. Lectotypes, epitypes or neotypes are designated for all these species. Descriptions are based on macro- and micromorphological characters and supplemented with DNA analyses of the nrLSU regions from 20 specimens. The molecular phylogenetic analyses reconstructed a phylogram showing relationships among the discussed species as well as some closely related taxa. The taxonomic value of the ratio of length and width of spores (Q-value) is discussed.

• Basidiomycota
• Clavaria
• DNA bar coding
• LSU sequences
• Ramariopsis
• spore measurements
• systematic
• typifications

Acknowledgments

We are very grateful for Gary Samuels’ pre-revision and language corrections, two anonymous reviewers’ useful critiques and the associate editor’s editorial improvements. Anna Ronikier is acknowledged for valuable comments concerning the structure of the manuscript. Karol Marhold (Institute of Botany, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava) and Ibai Olariaga (Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm) are acknowledged for advice on the nomenclature. Alexandra Ostertágová (Comenius University, Bratislava) kindly helped with Latin.

The research in major part was financially supported by national project VEGA 2/0028/11. Work in the Laboratory of Molecular Systematics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, and in Molecular Systematics Laboratory, Real Jardín Botanico, Madrid, was supported by a grant from the European Commission’s (FP6) Integrated Infrastructure Initiative program, SYNTHESYS (DK-TAF 3157, ES-TAF 4137). A study of Persoon’s original material and literature search in the Leiden Herbarium also was supported by SYNTHESIS ( NL-TAF-3886).