Morphological and molecular evidence for two new species of Laetiporus (Basidiomycota, Polyporales) from southwestern China

Abstract

Two Laetiporus species, L. ailaoshanensis and L. zonatus spp. nov., are described from southwestern China based on morphological and molecular characters. Laetiporus ailaoshanensis is characterized by orange-yellow to reddish orange pileal surface and cream to buff pores when fresh, azonate to faintly zonate pileus, ovoid to ellipsoid basidiospores (5.0–6.2 × 4.0–5.0 μm), and it has been observed only on Lithocarpus. Laetiporus zonatus is characterized by white to cream pileal surface with buff to clay-buff base when fresh, concentrically zonate basidiocarps, ellipsoid to pyriform or drop-shaped basidiospores (5.8–7.2 × 4.3–5.5 μm), and it has been found only on Quercus. The phylogenetic relationships of all recognized Laetiporus species were inferred from a combined dataset of ITS and nLSU-rDNA sequences, and L. ailaoshanensis and L. zonatus represent two new lineages in this group.

• brown-rot fungi
• Fomitopsidaceae
• phylogeny
• polypore
• taxonomy

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Prof Yu-Cheng Dai (BJFC, China) for collecting specimens and improving the text. Dr Zheng Wang (Yale University) is deeply thanked for improving the English. Drs Shuang-Hui He and Chang-Lin Zhao (BJFC, China) are acknowledged for companionship during field collections. Drs Karl-Henrik Larsson (O, Norway), Yan-Chun Li (HKAS, China), Hai-Sheng Yuan (IFP, China) and Josef Vlasák (České Budějovice, Czech Republic) are deeply thanked for loan of specimens. The research was financed by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Project No. JC2013-1) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No. 31170018).