Some new and interesting taxa of Cortinarius subgenus Phlegmacium from the European Mediterranean Basin

Abstract

We clarify the taxonomy and nomenclature of several taxa of the genus Cortinarius subgenus Phlegmacium. To this aim, we have used a combination of morphological and molecular data. The evolutionary relationships of the species were inferred by comparison of the nuITS by means of weighted maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood and two different types of Bayesian methods (with and without a priori alignments). Phylogenetic resolution and support of all or most of the species included in this study and their relationships were possible only when including the phylogenetic signal from ambiguously aligned regions in weighted maximum parsimony analyses (recoded INAASE characters) and when the analysis simultaneously optimized alignment and phylogeny (with BAli-phy). Three species are described as new, Cortinarius mediterraneensis, C. cistoglaucopus and C. palazonianus, and C. olivaecodionysae is proposed for C. dionysae f. olivaceus. Descriptions are provided for these taxonomic and nomenclatural novelties, along with discussions of morphological and phylogenetic affinities to closely related taxa. Scanning microphotographs of the basidiospores are provided for the discussed taxa, and color pictures of the basidiomes in their natural habitat are provided for C. cistoglaucopus, C. mediterraneensis and C. palazonianus.