Two new rare species of Candolleomyces with pale spores from China

Abstract

Most species of Candolleomyces have brown or dark brown spores. Although pale-spored members are rare in the genus we frequently collected two such species from many Provinces during our investigations in subtropical China from 2016–2020. As revealed by morphological characterisation and multigene phylogenetic analyses (ITS LSU β-tub and tef-1α) these species which we have named C. subcacao and C. subminutisporus are unique and distinct from known taxa. In addition a new combination C. cladii-marisci is proposed on the basis of ITS sequence analysis of the type specimen. Detailed descriptions colour photos illustrations and a key to related species are presented.