Gomphus zamorinorum Krishnapriya K., T.K.A.Kumar, sp. nov.
Index Fungorum number: IF 844405; Mycobank number: MB 844405; Facesoffungi number: FoF 11792; Fig. 1
Etymology – In honour of the Zamorins, the hereditary monarchs (1124 CE – 1806 CE) of the kingdom of Kozhikode that was an important trading port on the southwestern coast of India (South Malabar).
Holotype – ZGCKP203A.
Basidiomes gregarious, growing as a cluster, two to three basidiomes in a cluster, 30 to 40 mm long, 6 to 10 mm wide at the apex, not differentiated into stipe and pileus. Young basidiomes cylindrical, arising from a thick rhizomorph like structure, branched (2–3) towards the apex, branches 5 to 6 mm thick, branching irregular, apex pyxidate, round or obtuse, not acute, glabrous to fibrillose. Mature basidiomes becoming partially lobed downwards, branched upwards, round, with broad hymenial folds or wrinkles, ellipsoid in cross section, solid, fleshy, fragile, bright violet fruitbody, with a purplish tint towards the apex, no color change on drying, odour pleasant. Positive reaction in FeCl3.
Basidiospores 6–7 × 4–5 µm (Q = 1.2–1.7 µm; Qm=1.4 µm), phaseoliform in side view, oblong in front view, with guttulate contents (uniguttulate), verrucose, thin to thickwalled, hyaline, apiculus prominent (up to 1 µm long), in some hilar appendage protruded up to 6–7 µm long, inamyloid, cyanophilic in cotton blue. Basidia 25–50×4–7 µm, uniguttulate to agguttulate, cylindrical to clavate, not smooth, incrustations present on the basidia, sterigmata 2–4 (up to 4–7 µm long), cyanophilic. Hymenial cystidia 21–60×5–6 µm, cylindrical to flexuose, projecting from the hymenium, thin-walled, inamyloid, pileocystidia absent. Hymenium 80–110 µm wide. Subhymenium not distinguishable. Context composed of interwoven, irregularly arranged, encrusted, and agglutinated hypahe, hyphal constrictions present, septate, 4–8 µm wide, blackish in group, gleophorous hyphae present, in some bulged at the septal portion (up to 11 µm), thin-walled, cyanophilic, inamyloid. Hyphal clamp-connections absent.
Habitat – In gregarious clusters among leaf litters on soil.
Material examined – India, Kerala State, Wayanad District, Banasura sagar dam site area (11.6942° N, 75.9081° E), 29 September 2019, Krishnapriya K., ZGCKP203A (holotype), KP203B (isotype).
GenBank numbers – ZGCKP203A: ITS = ON732852; KP203B: ITS=ON732853.
Notes – In ITS based phylogenetic analysis, Gomphus zamorinorum settled in the Gomphus clade, sister to Gomphus clavatus (Fig. 2). Gomphus zamorinorum is characterised by its deep violet basidiomes with wrinkled hymenophore, branched, comparatively smaller basidiospores and basidia, presence of hymenial cystidia, presence of gleophorous hypahe, generative hyphae with ampulliform swelling and absence of clamp connections. Gomphus zamorinorum is similar to G. clavatus macroscopically in having the wrinkled hymenophore with deep violet colour (Giachini et al. 2012). However, G. zamorinorum differs from the latter morphologically, with its branched basidiomes, smaller basidiospore and basidia, absence of pileocystidia, presence of gloeophorous hyphae and absence of clamp-connections. Besides this, hyphal encrustations are observed in G. zamorinorum, which is absent in the latter.
Figure 1 – Gomphus zamorinorum (ZGCKP203A, holotype). a, b Basidiomes. c Hymenial cystidia. d Basidiospores. Scale bars: a, b=10 mm, c=10 μm, d=7 μm
Figure 2 – Phylogram generated from maximum likelihood analysis based on ITS sequence data showing the placement of Gomphus zamorinorum. This analysis involved 36 nucleotide sequences. There was a total of 837 positions in the final dataset. Calocera cornea was taken as the out-group. The tree with the highest log likelihood (− 17,846.00) is shown. The percentage of trees in which the associated taxa clustered together is shown next to the branches. Type strains are in bold and newly generated sequences are in blue