Parasola neoplicatilis T. Bau, L. Y. Zhu & Q. Q. Liu, 2025

Zhu, LiYang & Bau, Tolgor, 2025, Emendation of morphology and infrageneric standards of Parasola (Psathyrellaceae, Agaricales) and its species diversity in China, IMA Fungus 16, pp. e 143796-e 143796 : e143796-

Parasola neoplicatilis T. Bau, L. Y. Zhu & Q. Q. Liu sp. nov.

Figs 12 g – l , 15

Diagnosis.

Pileus light yellow-brown at margin and orange-brown in center when young, light gray-brown and with a bright orange-brown center when mature; stipe white to pale gray at upper part, light brown at lower part; basidiospores 7.4–8.1 × 5.8–6.1 × 5.0–5.4 μm, most in ovoid, mitriform, ellipsoid or limoniform in front view, flattened, ellipsoid to narrow ellipsoid in side view, dark olive-brown to almost black; germ pore slightly eccentric; basidia dimorphic, 16–31 × 5–9 μm, 4 - spored; cheilocystidia 25–54 × 10–26 μm, abundant, utriform, broad ellipsoid or broad lageniform, sometimes apically mastoid; pleurocystidia 37–100 × 13–27 μm, sublageniform or (sub) cylindrical; pileipellis a hymeniderm at yellow-brown sulcate, mainly made up of ellipsoid or clavate cells, sometimes subglobose or utriform with short pedicels; sclerocystidia absent; some terminal elements of caulopellis hyphae obtuse, attenuated or cystidioid.

Etymology.

The epithet “ neoplicatilis ” means that this species has similar morphological characteristics and close genetic relationship with P. plicatilis .

Type.

CHINA • Jiangsu Province, Nanjing City, Purple Mountain (near Wong Ka Wan MTR Station) , 32°08'16"N, 118°83'99"E, 137 m a. s. l., on clayed soil under broad-leaved tree, May 13 th 2022, Q. Q. Liu, X. Chen, W. Q. Zhu and Y. Huang, HMJAU 64087 (HY 51302, holotype) .

Description.

Pileus 4–6 × 6–9 mm when still closed, 11–15 mm when mature, at first mitriform or ellipsoid, finally almost flattened, sometimes with a conspicuous depressed disc at center; dry; light yellow-brown at margin and orange-brown in center when young, light gray at margin and with a bright orange-brown center at age, sometimes with water-soaking texture; sulcate-striate almost up to center. Context extremely thin, brown in center and almost unseen at margin, odor and taste not distinctive. Lamellae crowded, free and remote from stipe by pseudocollarium, 1 mm in wide, L = 31–40, I = 0 or 1, first white to beige, pale brown-gray when expanded; hardly deliquescing with age. Stipe 48–67 × 2 mm, cylindrical, hollow, equal or attenuate towards the apex, slender, white to pale gray at upper part, light brown at lower part, white to cream at base, glabrous or with sparse tiny hairs. Spore print not recorded.

Basidiospores [58, 5, 3] (6.0) 7.4–8.1 (9.4) × (4.5) 5.8–6.1 (6.7) × (4.3) 5.0–5.4 (6.3) μm, Q 1 = 1.09–1.51, Q 2 = 1.33–1.73, av. Q 1 = 1.28, av. Q 2 = 1.53; most in ovoid, mitriform, ellipsoid or limoniform with apical papilla and convex base in front view, flattened, ellipsoid to narrow ellipsoid in side view; smooth, dark brown to almost black, with yellow-brown oil droplet; inamyloid; germ pore slightly eccentric, 1.3–1.7 μm wide. Basidia dimorphics, 16–31 × 5–9 μm, sterigma 3–6 μm, clavate, hyaline, 4 - spored, surrounded with (3) 4–7 pseudoparaphyses; subhymenium composed of subglobose, ellipsoid, oblong or cylindrical elements, 9–21 × 4–7 μm. Cheilocystidia 25–54 × 10–26 μm, abundant, utriform, broad ellipsoid or broad lageniform, sometimes apically mastoid, smooth, colorless, thin-walled. Pleurocystidia 37–100 × 13–27 μm, sublageniform or (sub) cylindrical. Lamella trama regular, 5–12 μm wide, hyaline, colorless, thin-walled. Pileipellis a hymeniderm at yellow-brown sulcate, mainly made up of ellipsoid or clavate cells, sometimes subglobose or utriform with short pedicels, 34–59 × 11–23 μm, hyaline, with brown hue at base; other part of pileus with gray hue a cutis, made up of hyaline, colorless to light brown, 4–9 μm; context at pilei center composed of densely interwoven hyphae, thin-walled, hyaline, yellow brown to brown, 7–14 μm wide. Sclerocystidia absent. Caulopellis hyphae parallel, 4–13 μm wide, hyaline, thin-walled, often diverticulate; hyphae of stipe trama 9–20 μm wide, colorless, thin-walled; caulocystidia unseen but some terminal elements of caulopellis hyphae obtuse, attenuated or cystidioid. Clamp connection and pseudoclamp present.

Ecology.

Solitary, subfasciculate, or in small groups, grow on clayey soil or moss layer in broad-leaf forest with Quercus fabri and Zelkova serrata or under bush of Ilex cornuta . Fruiting in May to September. Known from China by specimen study; other possible distributions are Vietnam and United States based on sequences downloaded from GenBank with invalid epithet “ neoplicatilis ”.

Other specimens examined.

CHINA • Same place with holotype, 132 m a. s. l., May 13 th 2022, Q. Q. Liu, X. Chen, W. Q. Zhu and Y. Huang, HMJAU 64088 (CX 219) ; • 127 m a. s. l., June 8 th 2022, Q. Q. Liu, Z. H. Zhang, J. M. Cheng, X. Chen, W. Q. Zhu, B. F. Wang, Y. Huang and Y. Chen, HMJAU 64089 (HY 60902) ; • 132 m a. s. l., June 25 th 2022, Q. Q. Liu, Y. Zhang, X. Chen, and W. Q. Zhu, HMJAU 64090 ; • 135 m a. s. l., September 28 th 2022, X. Chen, HMJAU 60084 (Z 22006) .

Notes.

Parasola neoplicatilis , Parasola plicatilis and Parasola papillatospora together constitute a unique clade in Parasola . Morphologically, these three species also share similar characteristics: red-brown hue at pilei center, sordid whitish to pale yellow-brown stipe, resemble lamellae density, ovoid basidiospores, utriform and sublageniform cheilocystidia and subcylindrical pleurocystidia which up to 100 μm (Uljé 2005; Huang 2019; Pošta et al. 2023). The morphological dissimilarity between the sister species, Parasola neoplicatilis and Parasola papillatospora , is minimal, while Parasola papillatospora processes grayer pileus, broader basidiospores in front view (with width 6.2–8.7 μm), longer basidia (15–45 μm in length) which are surrounded by 4–6 pseudoparaphyses ( Pošta et al. 2023). Differs from Parasola neoplicatilis , Parasola plicatilis have larger basidiospores which up to 15.3 μm and basidia which is 20–42 × 9–12 μm in size based on the description by Uljé (2005) and our studies of specimens of Parasola plicatilis ( HMJAU 46397 , HMJAU 46402 , HMJAU 46460 , HMJAU 60359 , HMJAU 60366 and HMJAU 60367 ). Among the above mentioned three species, Parasola plicatilis is a widespread species in the north temperate zone, while Parasola papillatospora and Parasola neoplicatilis are only known from East Europe and East Asia, respectively.

Macroscopically, Parasola glabra S. Hussain, Afshan, H. Ahmad & Khalid and Parasola plicatilis-similis are similar to Parasola neoplicatilis . However, Parasola glabra is distinguished from Parasola neoplicatilis by its larger basidiospores (14.5–16.5 × 9.5–11.5 × 8.0–10.5 μm) and shorter pleurocystidia (60–75 × 22–38 μm) (Hassain et al. 2018). Compared to Parasola neoplicatilis , pileus of Parasola plicatilis-similis is darker and its basdiospores are mostly in broad ellipsoid to broad hexagon and larger in size (11.8 × 9.7 μm in average) ( Szarkándi et al. 2017).

Figures

Figure 12. Basidiomata of species in Clade Plicatilis and Clade Misera of sect. Parasola. a – c Parasola tenuissima: a HMJAU 64085, b HMJAU 64086, c HMJAU 64084; d – f Parasola chowii: d HMJAU 60358, e HMJAU 60374, f HMJAU 64099; g – l Parasola neoplicatilis: g, h HMJAU 64087, i HMJAU 64088, j, k HMJAU 60084, l HMJAU 64089; m, n Parasola plicatilis: m HMJAU 60367, n HMJAU 60366; o Parasola megasperma HMJAU 60099.

Figure 15. Basidiomata and microscopic structures of Parasola neoplicatilis: a basidiomata (HMJAU 60084, HMJAU 64087, HMJAU 67089), b pileipellis (HMJAU 64087), c basidiospores (HMJAU 60084, HMJAU 64087, HMJAU 67089), d basidia (HMJAU 60084), e cheilocystidia (HMJAU 60084, HMJAU 64087), f pleurocystidia (HMJAU 60084), g stipitipellis (HMJAU 60084). Scale bars: 1 cm (a); 10 μm (b – g).