Calycina botanica L. Luo & K. D. Hyde, 2025

Calycina botanica L. Luo & K. D. Hyde sp. nov.

Fig. 2 View Figure 2

Etymology.

The epithet botanica refers to the collection site “Kunming botanical garden” where the holotype specimen was collected.

Holotype.

HKAS 139497 View Materials .

Description.

Saprobic on dead leaves. Sexual morph: Apothecia superficial, gregarious, 0.2–0.5 mm in diameter, 0.6–1.6 mm high when dry, discoid to cupulate, short stipitate, externally covered with dense tuberculate. Disc concave, surface smooth, yellow. Margin flat to involute, yellow. Receptacle cupulate to discoid, yellow, covered with tuberculate entirely. Stipe 0.2–0.3 mm in diameter, 0.2–0.4 mm long when dry, cylindrical, solitary, yellow, no hairs. Hymenium 30–55 µm (x – = 39 µm, n = 42), concave, surface slightly smooth, yellow in fresh and in dry. Medullary excipulum 13–24 µm (x – = 18 µm, n = 24), thin, hyaline, thin-walled cells of textura oblita to textura porrecta, 2.3–6.1 µm (x – = 4.5 µm, n = 50) in diameter. Ectal excipulum 8.5–27 µm (x – = 17 µm, n = 31) thin, thin-walled, smooth, hyaline cells of textura globulosa to oblita, 1.9–5.7 µm (x – = 3.5 µm, n = 60) in diameter. Paraphyses 22–34 × 0.8–2.4 µm (x – = 28 × 1.7 µm, n = 25), longer than asci, filiform, straight to slightly curved, aseptate, hyaline, smooth, with slightly obtuse apex. Asci 25–35 × 1.8–3.8 µm (x – = 28.5 × 2.6 µm, n = 50), 8 - spored, clavate, straight to slightly curved, inoperculate, hyaline, unitunicate, slightly smooth, with an apical, amyloid pore and rounded ends, J + in MLZ, tapered short stipitate base. Ascospores (85 / 7 / 2) (3.3 –) 3.6–5.0 (– 5.5) × 1.0–2.3 (– 2.5) µm, (x – = 4.4 × 1.7 µm, n = 55), partly biseriate, fusoid-clavate with a rounded end and a blunt end, fusiform, 0-1 - septate, thin-walled, hyaline, slightly smooth, tapering towards the obtuse ends, one or multi-guttules. Asexual morph: Not observed.

Material examined.

• China, Yunnan Province, Kunming City, Kunming Botanical Garden , altitude 1999 m, on the decayed unknown leaf, 15 October 2022, Le Luo, ly 1027 ( HKAS 139497 View Materials , holotype) ; ibid., Le Luo, ly 1026 ( HKAS 139496 View Materials , paratype) .

Notes.

Calycina botanica ( HKAS 139497 and HKAS 139496 ) clustered the clade comprising C. cortegadensis and C. eucalypticola , with 85 % MLBP and 0.83 BIPP (Fig. 1 View Figure 1 ) statistical supports, and they together formed a clade with C. marina ( TROM: F 26093 and TROM: F 26101 ). Calycina cortegadensis was introduced by Crous et al. (2019) from a living twig of Castanea sativa from north-western Spain. The new species exhibited morphological differences with C. cortegadensis by having yellow apothecia, aseptate paraphyses, and 0–1 - septate ascospores whereas the latter species was characterized by brown apothecia, septate paraphyses, aseptate ascospores ( Crous et al. 2019). Calycina botanica phylogenetically differs from C. cortegadensis by 9.3 % (46 / 490 bp) differences in the ITS region and 4.8 % (39 / 815 bp) differences in the LSU region. Calycina eucalypticola is only reported in their asexual morphs ( Wu and Diao 2023). Calycina botanica phylogenetically differs from C. eucalypticola by 7.8 % (38 / 490 bp) differences in the ITS region and 5 % (41 / 815 bp) differences in the LSU region.

In addition, our new species shares morphological similarities to C. marina in having hyaline, thin-walled cells in the ectal excipulum and smooth, hyaline paraphyses. However, C. botanica differs from C. marina in having stipitate apothecia, thin-walled, non-gelatinized, textura oblita to porrecta cells of the medullary excipulum, the tuberculate ornamentation on the receptacle, smaller asci (25–35 µm vs. 58–87 µm), and smaller ascospores (3.6–5.0 µm vs. 8–13 µm), in contrast to the sessile apothecia, thick-walled, gelatinized textura angularis - prismatica into t extura intricata - porrecta cells of the medullary excipulum, and the lack of ornamentation on the receptacle of the latter ( Baral and Rämä 2015). Based on morphological characters along with the phylogenetic analyses, C. botanica is introduced here as a new species.