Geastrum

Abstract: This paper presents a revision of 819 herbarium collections of Gasteromycetes from Costa Rica. One hundred and three taxa were identified, two of them are new records for America: Cyathus africanus and Morganella compacta; and 44 are new to Costa Rica: Bovista aestivalis, B. cunninghamii, B. dermoxantha, B. dominicensis, B. longispora, Calostoma lutescens, C. ravenelii, Calvatia candida, C. excipuliformis, Chlamydopus meyenianus, Crucibulum laeve, Cyathus earlei, C. berkeleyanus, C. helenae, C. julietae, C. limbatus, C. montagnei, C. nova-zealandiae, C. pallidus, C. poeppigii, C. setosus, Geastrum badium, G. fimbriatum, G. fimbriatum var. pseudohieronimii var. nov., G. javanicum, G. lageniforme, G. minimum, G. rufescens, G. smardae, G. striatum, Langermannia bicolor, L. gigantea, Lycogalopsis solmsii, Lycoperdon echinatum, L. eximium, L. juruense, Phallogaster saccatus, Scleroderma bovista, S. cepa, S. verrucosum, Vascellum endotephrum, V. floridanum,V. pratense and V. texense. Five genera are new to Costa Rica: Chlamydopus, Langermannia, Lycogalopsis, Phallogaster and Vascellum. Comments related with their taxonomy, ecology and distribution are also included. Based on the results, we conclude that the Gasteromycetes flora of Costa Rica is one of the richest in America, if we take into account the small area of the country. Richness may be due to more intensive sampling than in other neotropical countries, as well as to a range of altitudes from sea level to 3820 m.

Abstract: A new species, Geastrum inpaense , is described morphologically and molecularly. Geastrum lloydianum, G. schweinitzii, Phallus merulinus and Staheliomyces cinctus are reported here as new records for Central Amazonia. In addition, Mutinus fleischeri is reported as a new record for the Americas and Phallus atrovolvatus , as a new record for Brazil.

Abstract: A revision of the classification of Geastrum sect. Geastrum is presented on the basis of an integrative taxonomic approach, which involves the study of morphological, molecular, ecological, and chorological data. Four DNA regions are analysed: the ITS and LSU nrDNA, rpb1, and atp6. Phylogenetic reconstructions include 95 ingroup samples and show five main clades, which are considered as five subsections, one of them proposed as new (G. subsect. Hungarica), and a total of 27 lineages recognizable at species level. Discriminant function analyses, ANOVAs and Tukey’s HSD tests on more than 500 basidiomata reveal the utility of several quantitative morphological characters for species delimitation. As a result of the combination of the different sources of taxonomic information, a revised taxonomy is presented and seven new species, viz., G. austrominimum, G. benitoi, G. britannicum, G. kuharii, G. meridionale, G. papinuttii, and G. thanatophilum, are proposed.