A synopsis of the saddle fungi (Helvella: Ascomycota) in Europe – species delimitation, taxonomy and typification

Abstract

Helvella is a widespread, speciose genus of large apothecial ascomycetes (Pezizomycete: Pezizales) that are found in terrestrial biomes of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. This study represents a beginning on assessing species limits and applying correct names for Helvella species based on type material and specimens in the university herbaria (fungaria) of Copenhagen (C), Harvard (FH) and Oslo (O). We use morphology and phylogenetic evidence from four loci – heat shock protein 90 (hsp), translation elongation factor alpha (tef), RNA polymerase II (rpb2) and the nuclear large subunit ribosomal DNA (LSU) – to assess species boundaries in an expanded sample of Helvella specimens from Europe. We combine the morphological and phylogenetic information from 55 Helvella species from Europe with a small sample of Helvella species from other regions of the world. Little intraspecific variation was detected within the species using these molecular markers; hsp and rpb2 markers provided useful barcodes for species delimitation in this genus, while LSU provided more variable resolution among the pertinent species. We discuss typification issues and identify molecular characteristics for 55 European Helvella species, designate neo- and epitypes for 30 species, and describe seven Helvella species new to science, i.e., H. alpicola, H. alpina, H. carnosa, H. danica, H. nannfeldtii, H. pubescens and H. scyphoides.

The Helvella corium species aggregate in Nordic countries – phylogeny and species delimitation

“…macrosperma (Favre 1955) from the Swiss Alps. The latter variety was later given specific rank by Fellner & Landa (1991), as has been followed by subsequent authors (Van Vooren 2014, 2015, Skrede et al 2017. Contrary, in his monumental work on Helvella, Dissing (1966b) included H. alpestris, H. arctica and H. arctica var.…”

“…Recently, the minichromosome maintenance complex component 7 (mcm7) and the ribosome biogenesis protein tsr1 were added to the list of valuable markers for resolving high-as well as low level taxonomic units in Ascomycota (Aguileta et al 2008, Raja et al 2011. In Helvella a portion of the heat shock protein 90 (hsp), in combination with rpb2, were shown to have strong discriminating power at the species level (Skrede et al 2017). Hsp was also shown to be successfully amplified from fungaria specimens.…”

“…272 bp). It was introduced as a most useful secondary barcode marker in Helvella (Skrede et al 2017).…”

Next Generation Sequencing of Ancient Fungal Specimens: The Case of the Saccardo Mycological Herbarium

“…This result probably depends on the fact that only a small fraction of the known fungal species is represented by molecular data in the public databases, and to such a purpose it is worth remembering that no molecular information is presently available not only for many species, but also for entire genera. The morphological analysis of the five specimens highlighted that, based on the presence of a regularly cupulate to planar apothecium with a ± prominent distinct stipe bearing blunt ribs not or scarcely continuing onto the receptacle, a non-amyloid ascus apex (in Melzer's reagent), spores 16-20 × (11) 12-14 µm with a large inner guttula, P. ancilis (s_09, s_10), P. amphora (s_20) and P. bicucullata (s_28) are conspecific and assignable to the Helvella leucomelaena complex (Skrede et al, 2017). By contrast, the specimen of P. amplispora (s_08), characterized by a non-stipitate apothecium, an amyloid ascus apex, large, non-guttulate spores up to 30 × 16 µm, is assignable to the genus Peziza.…”

Discomycetes of Kharkiv Forest-Steppe (Ukraine): the annotated checklist

“…Назви видів грибів наведені відповідно до бази даних Index Fungorum, або загальноприйнятих чи нових публікацій, які не відображені у IF [PFISTER et al, 2002;NGUYEN et al, 2013;PÄRTEL et al, 2016;INDEX FUNGORUM, 2017;SKREDE et al, 2017]. Систематичне положення на рівні вищих рангів таксонів наведено відповідно до X-го видання «Ainsworth & Bisby's Dictionary of the Fungi» [KIRK et al, 2008]; родини порядку Helotiales наведені відповідно до новіших публікацій [BARAL et al, 2015;PÄRTEL et al, 2016].…”