Cantharellus variabilicolor – Facesoffungi number: FoF 00993

Cantharellus variabilicolor Buyck, Randrianjohany & V. Hofstetter

MycoBank: MB 813242 Facesoffungi number: FoF00993

Diagnosis: Differs from the endemic Cantharellus decolorans and from the other reddish species in subgenus Cinnabarinus in its much more variable colour and its association with E. robusta in Madagascar.

Holotype: MADAGASCAR, Central Highlands, along the road 15 km before reaching Ranomafana, 31 January 2008, under Eucalyptus robusta, Buyck & V. Hofstetter 08.290 (PC0084806). Cap small. 10–20 mm diam., thin, rapidly depressed in the center and finally often strongly infundibuliformous, mostly irregularly undulate, flexuous or even lobed but not striate near the margin; the surface dull, smooth, either pale pinkish red to light lilac pink or orange to almost deep yellowish in colour, hygrophanous and much paler when dry. Hymenophore strongly decurrent, composed of well differentiated gill folds, relatively thick, up to 2 mm high, forking and anastomosing in different degrees, concolourous or slightly paler than the cap. Stipe 10–20×1.5–2 mm, subcylindrical or slightly narrowing downwards, smooth or nearly so and concolourous with the cap, solid then narrowly fistulose. Flesh relatively thick in the cap center, but rapidly narrowing outward, concolourous and hygrophanous. Taste mild. Smell typical. Spore print very pale cream to off-white, insufficient for a correct appreciation of the colour, but a priori not yellowish. Sporesshortly ellipsoid to ellipsoid or slightly reniformous, measuring (7.1)7.6-8.08-8.6(9.2)×(4.2)4.5-4.81-5.2(5.4) μm, Q= (1.5)1.6-1.68-1.8(2), smooth, uni- to pluriguttulate. Basidia slender, poorly to distinctly clavate, (50)60- 75(80)× (8.5)9-12 μm, (3)4-5(6)-spored; basidiola longtime subcylindrical. Cystidia none. Subhymenium filamentous but strongly septate, composed of rather short, inflated cells that are hardly wider than the basidium base. Pileipellis a thin and loose cutis of thin- to slightly thick-walled, fragile and easily collapsing hyphae measuring (5)7-14(17) μm diam., terminal cells subcylindrical to slightly fusiformous or clavulate. Clamp connections everywhere. 1826: (7)7.5-8.14-9×5–5.59-6(6.5) Q=1.33- 1.46-1.56(1.75) 1825: (7.1)7.3-7.70-8(8.3)×(5)5.1-5.39-5.7(5.8) Q=1.3- 1.43-1.5(1.6) holotype: (7.1)7.6-8.08-8.6(9.2)× (4.2)4.5-4.81-5.2(5.4) μm, Q=(1.5)1.6-1.68-1.8(2)

Material examined: MADAGASCAR, Central Highlands, 25 km southeast of Antananarivo, along RN2 to Antsirabe, bought from road stall before reaching the village of Ambanitsena, 28 February 2000, Buyck & Randrianjohany 00.1826 (PC 0085152), 00.1825 (PC 0085153); along RN2 bought from road stall and said to have been collected under E. robusta, 4 February 2006, Buyck & V. Hofstetter 06.145 (PC0084111), 06.146 (PC0084757); ibid., collected in young E. robusta plantation, 6 February 2006, Buyck & V. Hofstetter 06.151 (PC0124634), 06.168 (PC0124633); close to Ambohimasoa along the RN7 from Ambositra to Fianarantsoa, 1420 m alt., 29 January 2008, under E. robusta , B u y c k & V. H o f st ett e r 0 8. 2 4 3 (PC0084733), 08.260 (PC0084808), 08.261 (PC0085154); along the road 15 km before reaching Ranomafana, 31 January 2008, under Eucalyptus robusta, Buyck & V. Hofstetter 08.290 (PC0084806), 08.291 (PC0084807).

Notes: The most remarkable feature of this species is the variation in its overall colour which is frequently not pink but more lilac or sometimes even entirely yellowish orange. The different colour forms of this species grow mixed in the same localities. The pinkish red colour forms are undistinguishable from another Malagasy species, C. decolorans Eyssart. & Buyck and our phylogeny resolves and supports it as the sister species of C. variabilicolor. (BS=88 %). Our species differs from C. decolorans principally in its ecology, as it is found exclusively under introduced Eucalyptus robusta on the Central Plateau, whereas the latter chanterelle is only found growing with endemic species of the genus Uapaca (U. densifolia or U. ferruginea), mostly near mountain crests. Contrary to C. decolorans, which is too rare to be of any commercial value, C. variabilicolor is one of the chanterelles that is frequently offered for sale in road stalls and on market places during the rainy season It belongs in Cantharellus subg. Cinnabarinus Buyck & V. Hofstetter. Athough C. variabilicolor is similar in the field to other small pinkish red species, such as the North American C. cinnabarinus and C. texensis, or the European C. friesii, there is no doubt that the Australian C. concinnus is quite its closest match outside Madagascar and both species are near identical in their overall morphology. Yet, on the basis of RPB2 sequences (Buyck & V. Hofstetter unpubl.), C. concinnus is genetically more distant, being closely related to the New Caledonian C. garnieri Ducousso & Eyssart. and C. wellingtonensis McNabb described from New Zealand. We were unfortunately unable to obtain tef-1 sequences for these species.