Two new species of Clavulina and the first record of Clavulina reae from temperate Abies religiosa forests in central Mexico

Abstract

Clavulina is an ectomycorrhizal genus of macroscopic basidiomycetes, mostly with clavarioid basidiomata, distributed worldwide. The most commonly reported species are C. amethystina, C. cinerea, C. coralloides, and C. rugosa, which are part of a species complex in temperate ecosystems. In this work, we describe two new species, C. mahiscolorata and C. parvispora, from temperate forests of central Mexico. We also present a geographical range redistribution of C. reae, which displays great macromorphological variation regarding basidiome branching rank, colors, and tip shape. We provide macromorphological, micromorphological, and habitat data for each species, as well as nuclear rDNA ITS, rDNA LSU, and RPB2 sequences. Our findings highlight an underestimation of species richness in temperate ecosystems, as a consequence of assigning existing epithets to taxa without proper morphological and molecular analyses. The designation of neotypes for temperate species of Clavulina is urgent to delimit species concepts for the genus.