Fungalpedia – Note 479, Pycnopulvinus 

 

Pycnopulvinus Toome & Aime

Citation when using this data: Tibpromma et al. 2024 (in prep.) – Fungalpedia, Macrofungi.

Index FungorumFacesoffungi, MycoBankGenBank, Fig. 1 

Classification: Heterogastridiaceae, Heterogastridiales, Incertae sedis, Microbotryomycetes, Pucciniomycotina, Basidiomycota, Fungi.     

Pycnopulvinus was proposed as a new genus with a single species, Pycnopulvinus aurantiacus (type species) (Aime & Toome 2014). The initial habitat was recorded on the palm leaves of a Neotropical Forest in Ecuador. The new genus was identified based on its morphological and molecular characteristics (based on the ITS and LSU regions). Pycnopulvinus aurantiacus has minute orange stilboid sporocarps with a swollen basal region and long tubular neck bearing a mucoid droplet of spores at the tip, which is characteristic when differentiating it from other fungal species, particularly Heterogastridium, which is closely related to Pycnopulvinus (Aime & Toome 2014) A previously isolated species from the tropical forest of Costa Rica, Pycnobasidium sp., is probably a member of Pycnopulvinus;  however, it cannot be validated because of inadequate recordings (Aime & Toome 2014).  Pycnopulvinus is still found to be a monotypic species.

Type species: Pycnopulvinus aurantiacus Toome & Aime 

Other accepted species: This genus is monotypic.

Figure 1 – Pycnopulvinus aurantiacus (PUL F2679, holotype). a, b Sporocarp. c Tip of the neck with spore mass exiting the sporocarp. Ostiolar hyphae at the tip of the neck. e Spores. Scale bars: a, b = 0.5 mm, b = 200 μm, c = 25 μm, d, e = 10 μm. Redrawn from Aime & Toome (2014).

 

Reference

Aime MC, Toome M 2014 – Pycnopulvinus aurantiacus gen. et sp. nov., a new sporocarp-forming member of Pucciniomycotina. MycoKeys, 8, 43–50. 

 

Entry by

Priyashantha AKH, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand 

 

(Edited by Saowaluck Tibpromma, Samaneh Chaharmiri-Dokhaharani, & Achala R. Rathnayaka)

 

Published online 3 December 2024