Lycogala epidendrum (L.) Fr.

Song, Wen-Long, Jiang, Zi-Qiong, Li, Min, Leontyev, Dmytro, Gao, Yang & Chen, Shuang-Lin, 2025, Comprehensive revision of Lycogala (Myxomycetes) in subtropical China: morphological and phylogenetic insights and ten new species, IMA Fungus 16, pp. e 147535-e 147535 : e147535-

Lycogala epidendrum (L.) Fr. , Syst. mycol. 3 (1): 80 (1829) sensu Leontyev et al., Mycol. 115 (4): 548 (2023)

Specimen examined.

A total of 68 specimens. Detailed information on the voucher, geographic location, date of collection, and collectors of studied collections is provided in the Table 1 .

Distribution.

Widely distributed worldwide.

Notes.

Lycogala epidendrum has an extensive distribution and the most variable morphology within the genus ( Leontyev et al. 2023 b). In this study, out of 163 specimens of Lycogala from subtropical China, 68 specimens were identified as L. epidendrum , with further molecular confirmation of the identification (Suppl. material 6). The most obvious characteristic of L. epidendrum is the presence of very pale, irregular vesicles, faintly visible under RL, as well as the whitish strands of dried slime between the vesicles ( Leontyev et al. 2023 b). In addition, large sporocarps, rather irregular in shape and forming vast groups, may distinguish the L. epidendrum . However, the morphology of L. epidendrum exhibits polymorphism. Some of our collections of L. epidendrum consist of a few small sporocarps. This means that although the definition of L. epidendrum has been narrowed down, it is still a large species complex. This is further confirmed in the species delimitation results of ASAP. Five of ten partitions created by this service separate L. epidendrum into several species (Suppl. material 7). More studies, including recombination tests and multigene approaches, are needed to clarify whether L. epidendrum is a species complex or complex species.