Phylogeny of Crepidotus applanatus Look-Alikes Reveals a Convergent Morphology Evolution and a New Species C. pini

Abstract

Crepidotus applanatus is known as a common wood inhabiting fungus widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere. There have been contrasting opinions about the delimitation and taxonomic treatment of the similar species C. malachius. Our phylogeny did not support the close relationship of these two morphologically similar species and the grouping of collections labelled by both names within each phylogenetic species reflects unreliable species delimitations in the traditional literatures. Both species inhabit the wood of deciduous trees, and our morphological analysis identified the size of basidiospores as a significant difference between them. The collections from Pinus sylvestris are recognised as a new species, C. pini sp. nov., and its morphological identification requires a combination of both basidiospore and cheilocystidia characters.