Hymenochaetaceae from the Guineo-Congolian rainforest: three new species of Phylloporia based on morphological, DNA sequences and ecological data

Abstract

Four species are added to Phylloporia. Three species, originating from the western edge of the Guineo-Congolian rainforest in Gabon (central Africa), are described as new. Phylloporia afrospathulata sp. nov. forms seasonal, stipitate, solitary basidiomata emerging from soil, more likely connected to buried roots, and has broadly ellipsoid basidiospores. Phylloporia inonotoides sp. nov. forms seasonal sessile, soft basidiomata, solitary at the base of small-stemmed trees including Crotonogyne manniana (Euphorbiaceae) and Garcinia cf. smeathmannii (Clusiaceae). It has a homogeneous context, large pores (2–3 mm), and oblong-ellipsoid to suballantoid basidiospores. Phylloporia fulva sp. nov. forms sessile, conchate, mostly pendant, gregarious basidiomata emerging from the trunk of an unidentified small-stemmed tree and has small, subglobose basidiospores. This species is compared to Polyporus pullus and Phylloporia pulla comb. nov. and proposed based on the study of the type specimen. Phylogenetic inferences using partial nuc 28S DNA sequence data (region including the D1/D2/D3 domains) and the most exhaustive dataset available to date resolved these new morphospecies as three distinct terminal lineages. No sequence data of P. pulla currently is available. The 28S-based phylogenic inferences poorly resolved the interspecific relationships within the Phylloporia clade.

• Africa
• Basidiomycota
• Hymenochaetales
• polyporoid fungi

Acknowledgments

Prudence Yombiyeni gratefully acknowledges the financial support received, respectively, from the ACP-FORENET project supported by the EU (project 9ACP RPR91 No. 1). Mario Amalfi acknowledges the financial support received from the UCL through a Fond Special de la Recherche scholarship and from the Belgian Botanical Garden. Cony Decock gratefully acknowledges the financial support from the Belgian-Belgian Federal Science Policy and FNRS (Belgium) through a FRFC (Fonds de la Recherche Fondamentale Collective) project (FRFC No. 2.4515.06). The authors also thank the Curator of K for the loan of type specimens. Our gratitude also is extended Dr L. Korte, director Gabon Biodiversity Program, for facilitating our work at CTFS-ForestGEO Rabi forest monitoring plot and to Mrs M. Butler, manager, Gabon Biodiversity Program, who has organized and made easier our field research in Rabi. Mr C. Mombo, manager of Shell Rabi base, Mr T. Cockburn and Mr F. Tchatard from Shell Gabon also are thanked for their logistical help on the site. We thank the Research Institute in Tropical Ecology (IRET) of the National Centre of the Scientific Research (CENAREST) of Gabon for administrative formalities having let us perform field research. Thanks also to Mr N. Yao, field guide at Ipassa-Makokou research station that provided invaluable help during field work, and to the team of botanists and technician of the Smithsonian Institute in Gabon, namely Mr H. Memiaghe, E. Mounoumoulossi, G. Moussavou, D. Nguema and L. Tchignoumba. The authors also thank the two anonymous reviewers who helped improve the manuscript.

Notes

2 Authors of scientific names, if present in Supplementary Table I, are not repeated in the text as a rule