Balsamia platyspora Berk. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist.13: 358(1884)

Xu, Yu-Yan, Yan, Xiang-Yuan, Li, Ting & Fan, Li, 2020, A taxonomic reassessment of the genus Balsamia from China, MycoKeys 67, pp. 81-94 : 81

Balsamia platyspora Berk. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist.13: 358(1884) Figure 4

Materials examined.

China. Shanxi Province, Yuanqu County, Lishan Mountain Shunwangping Scenic Area, alt. 2200m, 16 August 2016, in soil under Pinus armandii Franch., Y.W. Wang WYW012 (BJTC FAN557).

Notes.

Balsamia platyspora is distributed in Europe, North America and Asia ( Berkeley 1844; Gilkey 1939). In China, it is reported as early as 1990 from Shanxi Province based on morphological evidences ( Liu and Tao 1990), but unfortunately, we have been unable to find the voucher specimen. In this study, our molecular analysis based on 28S sequences (Fig. 1 ) and ITS sequences (Fig. 2 ), and morphological studies confirmed the occurrence of this species in China based on the new collections from the Shanxi Province where this species was harvested originally by Liu and Tao (1990). Balsamia platyspora is mainly characterized by its minor subglobose ascomata, reddish brown to dark brown warts, white to yellowish white gleba with around 1 mm chambers, citriform or broadly elliptic asci, shortly elliptic ascospores 19-22-28 × 12-13-16 μm (ca. 20 × 13 μm) ( Berkeley 1844; Hawker 1954; Pegler et al.1993), our specimen well matched the characteristics.

Figures

Figure 1. Phylogenetic tree generated from a maximum parsimonious analysis based on 28 S sequences, showing the phylogenetic relationships of Helvellaceae. Tuber anniae and T. bellisporum are the outgroups. Maximum parsimonious bootstrap support values (≥ 70 %) and maximum likelihood bootstrap support values (≥ 70 %) are indicated above the nodes as MPBS / MLBS. Thick black branches received Bayesian posterior probabilities (BPP) ≥ 0.95. Novel sequences are printed in bold.

Figure 2. Phylogenetic tree generated from Bayesian analysis based on ITS sequences, showing the phylogenetic relationships of Balsamia. Tuber anniae and T. bellisporum are the outgroups. Maximum parsimonious bootstrap support values (≥ 70 %) and maximum likelihood bootstrap support values (≥ 70 %) are indicated above the nodes as MPBS / MLBS. Thick black branches received Bayesian posterior probabilities (BPP) ≥ 0.95. Novel sequences are printed in bold.

Figure 4. Balsamia platyspora (BJTC FAN 557) a ascomata b peridium c warts d immature ascus e, f mature ascus g ascospores. Scale bars: 1 cm (a); 100 μm (b, c); 25 μm (d, e, f); 20 μm (g).