Published January 29, 2026
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Revisions to the Gliophorus irrigatus complex (Agaricales, Hygrophoraceae, Gliophorus, section Unguinosae) including four new species, one new combination and comparisons of basidiome vs. eDNA distributions
Authors/Creators
- 1. Pembrokeshire Fungus Recording Network, Somerton Farm, Pembroke, United Kingdom
- 2. Royal Botanic Gardens, Richmond, United Kingdom
- 3. Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark|Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
- 4. Department of Plant Pathology, University of Georgia, Athens, United States of America
- 5. University of Michigan Herbarium, Ann Arbor, United States of America
- 6. Department of Life Sciences, Prifysgol Aberystwyth, Aberystwyth, United Kingdom
- 7. Mycota, Plymouth, United States of America
- 8. Summit Metro Parks, Akron, United States of America|Ohio Mushroom DNA Lab, Arcanum, United States of America|Fungal Diversity Survey, Kalamazoo, United States of America
- 9. Biology Department, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, La Crosse, United States of America
Description
Here, we report the discovery of four new agaricoid fungi in the Gliophorus irrigatus complex of the family Hygrophoraceae. Gliophorus alboviscidus sp. nov. from the UK is morphologically identical to the European G. irrigatus (which we neotypify), except that its basidiome is white or pale Buff-coloured vs. brownish-grey. Two new species from eastern North America, Gliophorus fumosus sp. nov. (provisional name Gliophorus sp. 'irrigatus-IN01') and Gliophorus parafumosus sp. nov. (previously labelled G. irrigatus) resemble G. irrigatus s.s. in grey colour and morphology, but their distributions are restricted to North America. Phylogenetic reconstruction revealed that the two North American groups form distinct clades, with > 10% ITS sequence divergence from European G. irrigatus s.s. and from each other. Though G. alboviscidus sp. nov. is currently known only from two locations in the UK, searches for related sequences from eDNA (environmental DNA) sequence repositories (UNITE/GlobalFungi) suggested that this species is more widely distributed in Eurasia. G. fumosus and G. parafumosus sequences from eastern North America were divergent from both European G. irrigatus and G. alboviscidus; both were more closely related to another species with a strong odour and white/Buff basidiomes from north-western North America, Hygrophorus subaromaticus, for which we sequenced the holotype and recombine in the genus Gliophorus. We also describe a new species from north-western North America, G. calunus sp. nov. (provisional name Gliophorus sp. 'irrigatus-CA01'), based on vouchered specimens photographed and sequenced by a paraprofessional group, CA FUNDIS. We highlight the importance of citizen-scientist groups and paraprofessionals in documenting macrofungal species and their distributions via databases, such as iNaturalist, Mushroom Observer and MycoMap. Further, we discuss reasons that eDNA distributions are often larger than known distributions of basidiomes, including G. alboviscidus and G. fumosus.
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