Phallus aureolatus Trierv., 2017

Trierveiler-Pereira, Larissa, De Meijer, André A. R., Reck, Mateus Arduvino, Hosaka, Kentaro & Silveira, Rosa Mara Borges Da, 2017, Phallus aureolatus (Phallaceae, Agaricomycetes), a new species from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, Phytotaxa 327 (3), pp. 223-236 : 229-232

Phallus aureolatus Trierv. -Per. & de Meijer, sp. nov. Figs. 3–5 .

Mycobank ID: MD 820923

Diagnosis:— Phallus aureolatus differs from P. merulinus by a longer indusium, pinkish volva and fetid odor.

Holotype:— BRAZIL. Paraná: Matinhos , 13 November 2010, leg. J.M. Baltazar LTP 109 ( ICN 176962 !, holotype) GenBank accession: ITS = MF372135, LSU = MF372127 .

Etymology:—from the Latin word aureola, named for its white cap on the top of the receptacle, resembling an angel’s aureole.

Description:— Immature basidiomata not observed. Mature basidiomata up to 12 cm high; volva globose to subglobose, 2.0‒ 2.5 cm high × 2.5‒3.0 cm diam., externally smooth, reddish grey (7B2) to brownish orange (6C3, 7C3), context <0.7 cm thick, light orange (6A4) to greyish orange (5B4), gelatinized; rhizomorphic strands few to numerous, single or branched, purplish pink (14A3) to reddish brown (8E4); pseudostipe cylindrical, spongy, hollow, cylindrical or slightly attenuated towards the apex, 8.0‒ 10 cm high × 0.8‒1.8 cm diam., white (1A1) when fresh; indusium pendant, rigid, inserted at the apical collar, not touching the receptacle margins, up to 7.0 cm long, white (1A1), lattices rather regular, 0.3‒1.7 cm in diam.; receptacle cylindrical, campanulate to conico-truncate, 1.5‒2.0 cm high × 2.0‒ 2.5 cm diam., surface rugulose to merulioid, whitish under the gleba, with a white spongy expansion (‘cap’) on the top when recently exposed, up to 1.0 cm high × 1.6 cm diam., later with a large apical pore; gleba mucilaginous, olive brown (4F4, 4F5), yellowish brown (5E5) to dark brown (6F5); odour strong, fetid.

Basidiospores cylindrical, usually attenuated to base, 3.0‒4.1 × 1.5‒2.0 μm, slightly thick-walled, smooth, pale green, in mass olive brown. Pseudostipe, receptacle and indusium pseudoparenchymatous, consisting of globose, subglobose to irregularly shaped hyphae, up to 60 μm in diam., and with up to 1.0 μm thick wall. External hyphae of volva filamentous, interwoven, hyaline, clamped, up to 9.0 μm wide. Rhizomorph hyphae hyaline, clamped, some inflated near the septa, 2.0‒8.0 μm wide, encrusted or not; large crystals forming rosette patterns abundant, 18‒40 μm wide.

Habit and habitat:—Usually solitary, growing on forest soil among litter.

Known distribution:—Brazilian Atlantic rainforest (dense ombrophilous forest) in the States of Santa Catarina,

Paraná and São Paulo.

Specimens examined:— BRAZIL. Paraná: Antonina, Reserva Natural Rio Cachoeira , 08 February 2005, A.A. R. de Meijer 4332 ( MBM) ; ibid., 05 November 2007, A.A. R. de Meijer 4376 ( MBM) ; Matinhos , 13 November 2010, leg. J.M. Baltazar LTP109 ( ICN, holotype) .

Additional specimens examined:— Phallus merulinus . FRENCH GUIANA. Tonnégrande-Montsinery, Pont des Cascades, in garden, leg. J.L. Cheype 120214-03 (ICN).

Comments:—Main features that characterize P. aureolatus are the whitish pseudostipe, receptacle and indusium; pinkish volva, rhizomorphs with purplish pigments, merulioid to rugulose receptacle and the long indusium. The white pseudoparenchymatous cap on the top of the receptacle when just exposed ( Figs. 3A , 5 ) also seems to be a constant feature. This cap later disappears to reveal the receptacle’s large apical pore.

The species has been only observed in areas of dense ombrophilous lowland forest near the coast. In the State of Santa Catarina it was photographed in 2007 in Florianópolis, Island of Santa Catarina ( Fig. 5 ). We also came across a published photograph of two specimens from Juréia, at the coast of São Paulo State ( Colombini & Miranda 2007, p. 125, named as ‘ Phallus indusiata ’).

Phallus aureolatus usually has a solitary habit, the group of two basidiomata photographed in São Paulo being the only known exception.

Phallus merulinus and P. atrovolvatus share the merulioid surface of the receptacle with P. aureolatus . Phallus merulinus , best known from the Paleotropics, has also been reported from the Neotropics ( Reid 1977, Cheype 2010, Cabral et al. 2014), where it may have been introduced ( Kreisel 1996). It can be distinguished from P. aureolatus by its shorter indusium, descending half the length of the pseudostipe at most, but mostly much shorter ( Boedijn 1932); and the whitish volva and rhizomorphs (Calonge 2005, Sridhar & Karun 2013). Phallus atrovolvatus is known from Central and South America and it can be separated from P. merulinus by the blackish volva ( Calonge et al. 2005, Cheype 2010, Cabral et al. 2014). Specimens of P. atrovolvatus were found on wood chips and plant debris and the colour of the rhizomorphs has not yet been described. An important detail is that both P. merulinus and P. atrovolvatus have been described as lacking a strong, repellent odour ( Boedijn 1932, Calonge et al. 2005, Sridhar & Karun 2013), while the odor of P. aureolatus is certainly fetid.

In Brazil, two more species with rugulose to granulose receptacle have been previously reported: P. campanulatus [ Rick 1961 and Cortez et al. 2011, as P. granulosodenticulatus B. Braun (1832: 10) ; Trierveiler-Pereira et al. 2016] and P. rubicundus ( Bononi et al. 1984, Cortez & Silva-Filho 2017), but both of them lack indusium, and P. rubicundus has a reddish to orange pseudostipe and receptacle.

Figures

FIGURE 3. Phallus aureolatus. A. Fresh basidiome in situ. B. Detail of the volva. C. Detail of the merulioid receptacle. Scale bar = 1 cm. Photographs are copyright of J.M. Baltazar, all from the holotype (LTP109, ICN)

FIGURE 4. Phallus aureolatus. A. Pseudoparenchymatous structure from the indusium. B. Basidiospores. Scale bars = 10 μm.

FIGURE 5. Phallus aureolatus photographed in 2007 in the State of Santa Catarina, Brazil. Photograph is copyright of L. Trierveiler- Pereira, voucher not preserved.