Urnula ailaoshanensis J. R. Lu, Y. Zhang & Q. Zhao, in Lu, Yu, Zhou, Lu, Zhang & Zhao, Phytotaxa 619(1): 91 (2023)

Index Fungorum number: IF 900885; MycoBank number: MB 900885; Facesoffungi number: FoF 14797; Fig. 1

Saprobic on dead, rotten wood surrounded by mosses. Sexual morph: Apothecia 2−5 cm diam., up to 1.5−3 cm high, scattered to gregarious, sessile to subsessile. Receptacle cupulate to turbinate, dark at receptacle surface, margin conspicuous, involute, entire, or undulate when young. Hymenium glabrous, deep ocher to dark brown with matt surface or reddish brown with lacquer gloss, nearly smooth. External surface velvety, towards juncture to stem folded or veined, veins joined to give the reticulate appearance, blackish to brownish black. Ectal excipulum 100−270 μm broad, of textura globulosa to textura angularis, composed of yellowish brown, dark brown to black cells, 22−35 × 8−21 μm broad, with two type hairs; 1) 3−5.5 μm broad, cylindrical, septate, dark brown, long hairs (hyphoid hairs), with dark granules on the surface; 2) 4−6.5 μm broad, subhyaline to yellow brown or dark brown, short hairs (true hairs), with smooth walls and rounded ends. Medullary excipulum 480−1,650 μm broad, of textura intricata, hyaline to yellowishbrown, composed of 3.5−5.5 μm broad hyphae. Paraphyses 1.5−3.5 μm diam., subhyaline to yellow brown, filiform, septate, longer than asci, apex slightly enlarged, irregular protuberances, and amorphous pigment in the upper part, 2.5−5 μm broad. Setae 3−5.5 μm diam., brown, filiform to narrowly cylindrical, straight, aseptate. Asci 410−600 × 20−30 μm, 8-spored, operculate, cylindrical, with a long stalk, J- apical ring. Ascospores (29.0−) 31−35 (−36.7) × (13.5−) 14.5−16.5 (−17.0) μm (Q = 1.89−2.37, Q = 2.13±0.14), subfusiform ellipsoid, inequilateral, rarely equilateral, uniseriate, hyaline, smooth-walled, 1−3-guttulate, or multi-guttulate. Asexual morph: Unknown.

Material examined – China, Yunnan Province, Puer City, Jingdong County, Ailao Mountain, on unidentified dead wood, 28 August 2021, Hongli Su, SHL-1 (HKAS 125550). ibid. 24 August 2022, Le Luo, LL 453 (HKAS 125897).

GenBank numbers – ITS: OP850045, OP850046; LSU: OP850224, OP850225.

Notes – Our collections clustered with the holotype collection of Urnula ailaoshanensis with bootstrap support (ML/BI = 82%/0.99) (Lu et al. 2023). The ITS and LSU sequence data of our collection is identical to the sequences derived from holotype. Therefore, we identified our collection as U. ailaoshanensis. However, our collection shows few morphological differences from holotype in hymenium, ectal excipulum, hairs, paraphyses and ascospores. Hence, we provide an emendation to the prologue. Hymenium in our collection is deep ocher to dark brown without lacquer gloss and external surface is not velvety, towards juncture to stem. Our collection contains two different kind of hairs viz. dark brown, long, hyphoid hairs with dark granules on the surface and subhyaline to yellow brown or dark brown, short, true hair with smooth walls and rounded ends. Ascospores in our collection are evenly distributed within the ascus while ascospores in holotype collection mostly concentrated into the upper part of asci. Ascospores of our collection are subfusiform, 1−3-guttulate, or multi-guttulate while illustration of holotype collection does not contain any guttulate (Lu et al. 2023). Urnula ailaoshanensis is morphologically distinguished from other Urnula species by cupulate to turbinate apothecia with two type excipular hairs, deep ocher to dark brown or reddish brown with lacquer gloss hymenium, subfusiform, inequilateral ascospores with 1−3 guttules. Further, Urnula ailaoshanensis is phylogenetically close to Urnula himalayana and U. versiformis. However, these two species morphologically differ from Urnula ailaoshanensis (Wang and Huang 2015; Wang et al. 2018; Lu et al. 2023) (Fig. 2).

Figure 1 – Urnula ailaoshanensis a Habitat. b–e Examined material (b, c HKAS 125550; d, e HKAS 125897). f Ectal excipulum and partly medullary excipulum. g Smooth hairs (true hairs). h Hairs with granules on the surface (hyphoid hairs). i Hymenium. j Paraphyses. k Apex of asci. l Setae (hymenium hair). m, n Asci. o–r Ascospores. Scale bars: f, h=50 μm, g, k, l=30 μm, i, m, n=150 μm, j=100 μm, o–r=20 μm

Figure 2 – Phylogram generated from maximum likelihood analysis based on combined ITS and LSU sequence data. Fifty-three strains are included in the combined analyses which comprised 1,828 characters (ITS: 987 bp; LSU: 841 bp). Both the Maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian analyses yielded similar tree topologies, and only the tree inferred from ML analysis is shown in Fig. 2. Bootstrap support values for ML ≥ 80% and Bayesian posterior probabilities greater than 0.95 are indicated at the nodes. The tree is rooted with Plectania harnischii (TUR: A195785 and WTU-F-17145) and P. sichuanensis (HKAS 107664). The newly generated sequences are indicated in blue bold and type strains are in bold.