Phylogenetic diversity of bulbil-forming lichenicolous fungi in Cantharellales including a new genus and species

• Published in: The Bryologist
• Main Authors: James D. Lawrey, Erich Zimmermann, Masoumeh Sikaroodi, Paul Diederich
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: The American Bryological and Lichenological Society 2016
• Subjects: Cladonia rangiferina
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1639/0007-2745-119.4.341

Lichenicolous species are widely distributed in the Basidiomycota, and many are known to produce sclerotia or bulbils with few additional structures to permit taxonomic placement. The Cantharellales include many of these species and we here describe a new species that grows over Cladonia rangiferina and forms yellow-orange, initially immersed bulbils similar to Burgella flavoparmeliae Diederich & Lawrey, a familiar species in the order. We obtained sequences of nuLSU representing an isolated culture and herbarium specimen of the species, and initial searches in GenBank indicated it was a member of the Cantharellales. We inferred its phylogenetic placement in the order using an existing dataset that included all known lichenicolous species. Our results indicate that it is not closely related to any described lichenicolous species or to any other described bulbilliferous species in the order. Based on these results, we are now establishing a new genus and species, Neoburgoa freyi, in the Hydnaceae sensu Hibbett et al. (2014). We also introduce the new name Adamflakia for the genus Bulbilla as the latter coincides with the technical term ‘bulbilla' used in previous descriptions of bulbil-forming species and is therefore not validly published following the ICN (Art. 20.2); Adamflakia applanata comb. nov. is proposed.