Helvella macropus (Pers.) P. Karst., 1871

Lu, Jin-Rong, Yu, Feng-Ming, Lei, Lei, Zhang, Ying & Zhao, Qi, 2023, A new species of Helvella (Helvellaceae, Pezizomycetes) within the H. macropus group from China, Phytotaxa 601 (3), pp. 212-222 : 217

Helvella macropus (Pers.) P. Karst., 1871 , Bidrag Känn. Finl. Natur. Folk. 19: 37 Figure 1 , 3

Index Fungorum number: IF 237869; Faces of Fungi number: FoF 08727.

Sexual morph: Pileus cupulate, shallowly cupulate to discoid, 0.5–2cm high, 1–4.5 cm broad, hymenium even, greyish brown to brown when fresh, brownish when dried, receptacle surface villose to densely pubescent, light to medium brown or greyish brown when fresh, becoming grey brown when dried. Stipe 3–7 cm long, 0.2–1 cm diam, terete to slightly sulcate, but never with ribs, internally solid, villose to densely pubescent, concolorous with the receptacle surface. Medullary excipulum 200–240 μm broad, of textura intricata, hyaline, composed of 3–4 μm broad hyphae, walls thickened, J-. Ectal excipulum 110–230 μm broad, of textura angularis, hyaline, terminal cells 16–35 × 7–24 μm, blue in cotton blue, J +. Stipitipellis 110–260 μm, of textura angularis, hyaline, terminal cells 20–40 × 9–14 μm, blue in cotton blue, J +. Asci arising from croziers, 8-spored, subcylindrical to clavate, with apex rounded, 220–260 × 14–19 μm, J- in Melzer’s reagent, blue in cotton blue. Paraphyses filiform, 4–5 μm broad, slightly exceeding the asci, apex enlarged, 6–11 μm broad, brown, blue in cotton blue, J-. Ascospores [40/2/2, in H 2 O] (19.5–)20–24(–24.5) × (9.5–)10–12 μm [Q = 1.90–2.35, Q m = 2.16 ± 0.14)], fusoid to subfusoid, smooth-walled to under the light microscope, triguttulate or unigutulate. Asexual morph: Undetermined.

Habitat: Scattered or gregarious on the ground, under Quercus sp. or Pinus sp. forests.

Distribution: Widely distributed in north temperate Eurasia and North America ( Dissing 1966, Häffner 1987, Abbott & Currah 1997).

Material examined: AUSTRIA, Klein Walsertal, Waldst ̧ck hinter dem Sport und Studienheim Marburg , 6 Jul. 2014, Flavus Popa K6 A59 ( HKAS 84891 ) , Flavus Popa K6 AA2 ( HKAS 84895 ) . GERMANY, Hessen, Wooghölle, 6 Jun. , 2014, Flavus Popa K6085 ( HKAS 84887 ) , Flavus Popa K63 A2 ( HKAS 84893 ) . CHINA, Hubei Province, Shennongjia County, on the ground, under Pinus armandii forest, alt. 1700 m, 13 Sep. 2015, Qi Zhao 1497 ( HKAS 78756 ) .

Notes: Morphologically, H. macropus is similar to H. fibrosa , H. cupuliformis and H. rivularis , which have cupulate pileus with villose to densely pubescent, light to medium brown or greyish brown receptacle surface ( Dissing 1966, Häffner 1987, Abbott & Currah 1997), but the latter three species have ellipsoid ascospores. Our phylogeny confirms the existence of at least four species of the H. macropus morphospecies complex, i.e., H. guttata , H. macropus s.s., H. fibrosa , and H. ephippioides . These four species can be well distinguished according to the characteristics mentioned in Table 2 .

Figures

FIGURE 1. Maximum likelihood (ML) tree of Helvella and its allies within Helvellaceae inferred from a combined LSU, TEF and HSP90 dataset. Bootstrap support values for ML ≥ 80 of SH-aLRT or 95 of UFB and posterior probability for BIPP ≥ 0.95 are indicated above the nodes and separated by ‘-/-/-’ (SH-aLRT/UFB/BIPP). Specimens of the current study are given in red. Type specimens are in bold. The letter ET after the sample stands for epitype, HT for holotype, and IET for isoepitype.

FIGURE 3. Helvella macropus. a Typical mature specimen (HKAS 78756); b Receptacle surface of pileus; c Stipitipellis; d Asci and paraphyses; e–i Asci; j, k Ascospores. Scale bars: a = 1 cm; b, c = 50 μm; d–k = 20 μm.