Fungalpedia – Note 2412, Tomentella
Tomentella Pers. ex Pat.
Citation when using this data: Yuan HS et al. 2020 – Fungalpedia, Basidiomycota.
Index Fungorum, Facesoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank, Fig. 1, 2, 3
Classification: Thelephoraceae, Thelephorales, Incertae sedis, Agaricomycetes, Agaricomycotina, Basidiomycota, Fungi
The name “Tomentella” was first used as the subgenus of Corticium Pers. (Persoon 1799) and was validated as the generic name by Patouillard (1887). Tomentella is delimited from the other genera mostly by the lack of a special combinations of features, which are present in the other genera (Agerer et al. 2001; Kõljalg 1996). It is characterized by strictly resupinate basidiocarps separable from or adhered to the substrates, a smooth or granulose hymenophore, the presence or absence of rhizomorphs, subicular hyphae with clamp connections or simple septa and ornamented basidiospores (Wakefield 1960; Larsen 1966, 1969, 1970; Kõljalg 1996). Fungi in this genus are cosmopolitan, and the species diversity based on fruitbodies have been extensively taxonomically studied from temperate Eurasia (Kõljalg 1996), North America (Larsen 1974), Iberian Peninsula (Melo et al. 2002), West Africa (Yorou and Agerer 2007, 2008; Yorou et al. 2011), Australia (Agerer and Bougher 2001), South America (Kuhar et al. 2016) and Asia (Thind and Rattan 1971). In addition, using high throughput sequencing techniques a large number of DNA sequences from environmental samples or plant ectomycorrhizal root tips from different regions of the world have been identified as Tomentella spp. with most of them not matching any known species (Gao et al. 2013, Nouhra et al. 2013). These sequences provide distribution information despite lacking a visible fruitbody. About 400 names have been recorded and around 150 species accepted in the database of Index Fungorum; 80 species were recorded in the Dictionary of the Fungi (10th ed.) (Kirk et al. 2008). However, taxonomic studies based on fruitbodies of Tomentella in China were very few. Based on morphological characteristics and phylogenetic analyses of rDNA ITS sequences, new species of Tomentella are described and illustrated in this paper. The types (type A–F) of rhizomorphic hyphal organization are important charateristics.
Type species: Tomentella ferruginea (Pers.) Pat., Hyménomyc. Eur. (Paris): 154 (1887).
Other accepted species: Species Fungorum – search Tomentella.
Figure 1 – A basidiocarp of Tomentella asiae-orientalis (IFP 019275, holotype).
Figure 2 – SEM of basidiospores of Tomentella asiae-orientalis (IFP 019275, holotype).
Figure 3 – Microscopic structures of Tomentella asiae-orientalis (IFP 019275, holotype). a Section through a basidiocarp. b Basidiospores in frontal view. c Basidiospores in lateral view.
References
Larsen MJ 1974 – A contribution to the taxonomy of the genus Tomentella. Mycologia Memoir 4:1–145.
Patouillard N 1887 – Les hyménomycètes d’Europe. Paris, pp 1–166.
Persoon CH 1799 – Observationes mycologicae II Lipsia & Lucerna, pp 1–106.
Thind KS, Rattan SS 1971 – Thelephoraceae of India. IV. The genus Tomentella. Indian Phytopathology 24:32–42.
Wakefield EM 1960 – Some species of Tomentella from North America. Mycologia 52:919–933.
Entry by
Hai-Sheng Yuan, CAS Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110164, People’s Republic of China, University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, People’s Republic of China
Published online 5 May 2026