The species of Cortinarius, section Bovini, associated with conifers in northern Europe

Abstract

Cortinarius bovinus and morphologically similar conifer-associated species were studied using material mainly from northern Europe. To stabilize the nomenclature, relevant types were examined. Phylogenetic relationships and species limits were investigated with rDNA ITS and nuclear rpb2 sequences as well as morphological data. We recognize seven species: C. bovinus (neotypified) and six new species, C. anisochrous, C. bovinaster, C. bovinatus, C. fuscobovinus, C. fuscobovinaster and C. oulankaënsis. Their taxonomy, ecology, distribution and relationships are discussed, and a key to species is provided. Based on our phylogeny and morphological data the species were placed in section Bovini.

• ITS
• MrBayes
• rpb2
• taxonomy

Acknowledgments

We thank the Cortinarius Flora Photographica team for collecting and documenting material of the species treated in this paper, Joe Ammirati for revision of English, Heino Vänskä for revision of Latin names and reviewers for valuable comments. We are grateful for the help of the curators of these herbaria: G, H, IB, O, PC and S. We also thank Josep Ballarà and Karl Soop for lending us their material. This work was supported by the Ministry of Environment, Finland (YM38/5512/2009), and the Swedish Taxonomy Initiative (dha 165/08 1.4).