Hericium yunnanense S.M. Tang & S.H. Li, 2024

Hericium yunnanense S.M. Tang & S.H. Li , sp. nov. ( Figs. 2 View FIGURE 2 , 3 View FIGURE 3 & 4 View FIGURE 4 )

MycoBank No: 854450

Holotype:— China, Yunnan Province, Xin-Ping County, Mopanshan Nature Reserve . 23°95.69’N, 101°93.96’E. 2,100-2,200m a.s.l., 13 July 2023, collected by Shu-Hong Li, ( HKAS135642 View Materials , holotype!).

Etymology:— ‘ yunnanense’ refers to the location “ Yunnan Province ” where the type specimen was collected.

Diagnosis:— Hericium yunnanense is closely related to H. novae-zealandide , but can be distinguished by a shorter primary branch.

Description: Basidiomata 180–300 × 110–170 mm, solitary, pendent, coral like. The base consists of a main branch, attached to the decaying wood of Alnus nepalensis . Primary branch up to 40 mm wide, branch diverging downward into progressively thinner and shorter secondary, tertiary, and quaternary branches. The terminal branches are short and pointed to 1–3 mm length, distributed in clusters of spines on the tertiary branches, in different directions. Young fruiting body is milky white (1A2), yellowing (5E8) in age, smell faintly of mushrooms, taste slightly bitter. The dried specimen has a stronger aroma and grey color (1E1). Culture on PDA medium will directly produce fruiting bodies and a small amount of mycelium. This fruiting bodies is also milky white (1A2) and has four levels of branching.

In PDA medium, mycelium and primordium grow together. The mycelium is flocculent and the primordium is spiny. Hyphal system monomitic, contextual hyphae generative, up to 6 μm wide, thick-walled up to 0.8 μm wide, with frequent branched and clamp connections of variable diam; Chlamydospores presence mycelium terminal or intercalary, 7.0–18.3 × 3.3–10 μm, mostly narrowly clavate or ellipsoid, rarely subglobose, irregularly, thick-walled, colorless in KOH; hymenial tramal hyphae 2.0–2.5 μm wide, hyaline in KOH, thin-walled (wall <0.3 μm thick), branched, with clamps; gloeoplerous hyphae 4.9–7.6 μm wide, abundant with yellowish green (30A8) contents, apex rounded to somewhat clavate, septa not found.

Gloeocystidia 3.0–3.9 μm wide, with dense content, extending beyond the hymenial palisade, apex tapered, nearly rounded. Basidiospores (3.5–) 3.8–4.6 (–4.9) × (2.9–) 3.2–3.8 (–4.0) μm, Q = 1.2167, Q m = 1.2167 ± 0.0878, hyaline, amyloid, broadly ellipsoid. Under a scanning electron microscope, basidiospores surface highly wrinkled with numerous rather broad ridges and bulges (like brain), ridges up to 0.1–0.2 μm high. Basidia 19.4–23.3 × 4.7– 5.3 μm, clavate to subclavate, mostly 4–spored, rarely 2–spored, sterigmata 1.6–2.5 × 0.3–0.7 μm. Hymenium and Subhymenium inamyloid; subhymenium hyphae thin-walled, to 4.5 μm wide.

Additional material examined: China, Yunnan Province, Yuxi Mopanshan Mountain, temperate mixed forest, 2,000 –2,100 m a.s.l., 27 September 2023, on an Alnus nepalensis , collected by Shu-Hong Li, (HKAS135643).