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Issue: Vol. 721 No. 3: 8 Oct. 2025
Type: Article
Published: 2025-10-08
DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.721.3.6
Page range: 265-276
Abstract views: 350
PDF downloaded: 10

Cuphophyllus aureus—a new species from Kerala State, India

Department of Botany, University of Calicut, Kerala, 673 635, India
Department of Botany, University of Calicut, Kerala, 673 635, India
Department of Botany, University of Calicut, Kerala, 673 635, India
Department of Botany, University of Calicut, Kerala, 673 635, India
Basidiomycota Cuphophyllaceae phylogeny taxonomy tropical fungi Fungi

Abstract

A new species of Cuphophyllus is described from Kerala State, India. This species is characterized by very small, omphalinoid basidiocarps, a golden yellow pileus with a glabrous and hygrophanous surface, arcuate-decurrent, transvenose and intervenose lamellae, a compressed, appressed-fibrillose and longitudinally-striate stipe with a pale yellow strigose basal mycelium, ellipsoid-oblong to lacrymoid basidiospores, a lamellar trama with an almost regular central strand flanked on either side by somewhat subregular hyphae, a hymenium devoid of pleuro- and cheilocystidia, a repent cutis-type pileipellis and a cutis-type stipitipellis. Phylogenetic analysis, conducted using a concatenated data matrix comprising the internal transcribed spacer (nrITS), nuclear large subunit (nrLSU), and RNA polymerase II subunit 2 (rpb2) genes, reveals that Cuphophyllus aureus forms a distinct lineage, separate from species in the section Virginei of the genus Cuphophyllus. A detailed taxonomic description, photographs, and line drawings of both the basidiocarps and the microscopic structures, comparisons with morphologically and phylogenetically related species, and a phylogram illustrating the position of the new species are provided.

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How to Cite

Latha, K.P.D., Varsha, M.K., Abhimanyu, C. & Ajmal, M. (2025) Cuphophyllus aureus—a new species from Kerala State, India. Phytotaxa 721 (3): 265–276. https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.721.3.6