Leccinum neotropicale Halling

  • Family

    Boletaceae (Basidiomycota)

  • Scientific Name

    Leccinum neotropicale Halling

  • Primary Citation

    New Leccinum species from Costa Rica
    Kew Bull. 54: 747-753. 1999

  • Type Specimens

    Specimen 1: Isotype -- R. E. Halling 7281, verif. R. E. Halling, 11/02/2004

  • Description

    Latin diagnosis: Pileus atrobrunneus, rugosus, pileipelle hymeniforme et trama exposita immutabili. Sub Quercus in montibus Cordillera Talamanca Costa Ricae. Holotypus: Costa Rica. Cartago: Estrella, 13 June 1994, Halling 7281 (USJ).

    Description: Pileus (4-)5-8.5(-13) cm broad, convex when young, becoming plano-convex to plane with age, subrugulose to rugulose to heavily rugose overall when young, rarely even to uneven on the disc and subrugulose at margin, dry to moist, sometimes slippery to subviscid when wet, velutinous to subvelutinous to subtomentose to matted subtomentose, brown to dark brown to dark reddish brown (6E-F8,8F8-7-6-5). Flesh white to very pale yellow or pale pink, up to 2 cm thick, unchanging when exposed, with mild odor and taste. Tubes adnexed to depressed to deeply depressed around stipe, up to 1 cm long, yellow (2-3-4A6-5) at first, becoming mustard yellow (3B6) to greenish yellow (2C6) with age, unchanging when exposed; pores concolorous, up to 1 mm broad, unchanging or light cinnamon brown when bruised. Stipe 5.5-9(-11) cm long, 1-2.5 cm broad, ±equal to subclavate to clavate, tapered at base, dry, yellow and subpruinose to pruinose at apex, finely scabrous to subscabrous-ridged below, with gray brown, clay color, or tan scabers on sordid yellow ground color or rarely pinkish with age, with white to pale yellow basal mycelium; interior white to pale yellow, solid, unchanging when exposed.

    : Basidiospores dull cinnamon brown in deposit, 10.5-17.5 ´ 3.8-4.9 mm, (n = 20, x¯ = 11 ´ 4.2 mm, Q¯ = 2.61), fusoid to subfusoid to elongate ellipsoid, smooth and thin-walled, hyaline, inamyloid. Basidia 24-32 ´ 8-12 mm, 4-sterigmate, clavate, hyaline, inamyloid. Hymenial cystidia 30-48 ´ 6-8 mm, narrowly fusiform to narrowly lageniform to almost subcylindric, hyaline, inamyloid, smooth and thin-walled. Hymenophoral trama bilateral, inamyloid, with hyphae 4-8 mm broad. Pileus trama interwoven, hyaline but sometimes diffusing a yellow pigment in KOH, inamyloid, with hyphae up to 20 mm broad, smooth and thin-walled. Pileipellis a hymeniform layer 2-3(-4) cells in depth, often beneath a gelatinized layer, composed of subspherical or cuboidal to subisodiametric cells, very rarely subcylindric, 10-25 mm broad, hyaline and thin-walled, with scattered dextrinoid pigment incrustations at pellis/trama interface. Stipitipellis vertically oriented, composed of parallel hyphae, giving rise to clusters of caulocystidia, broadly subfusoid to clavate to subclavate, up to 60 ´15 mm, occasionally with dull golden yellow content. Clamp connections absent.

    Paratypes: COSTA RICA. Cartago: Estrella, 5 km E of Interamerican Highway (km 31) near town of Estrella, 9/46'4"N, 83/57'19"W, 1685 m, 31 May 1994, Halling 7216 (NY, USJ). Palo Verde, 4.5 km E of Interamerican Highway (km 31) near town of Palo Verde, 9/46'34"N, 83/56'42"W, 1600 m, 29 May 1996, Halling 7583 (NY, USJ). San Jose: Dota, San Gerardo, Albergue de Montaña, Savegre, ±5 km SW of Cerro de la Muerte, 9/33'2"N, 83/48'27"W, 2500 m, 10 June 1994, Halling 7268 (NY, USJ). Jardín, 3.5 km W of Interamerican Highway (at Empalme), 9/42'52"N, 83/58'28"W, 2220 m, 26 May 1996, Halling 7554 (NY, USJ).

    Habit, habitat, and distribution: Solitary to gregarious under Quercus copeyensis, Q. oocarpa, Q. seemannii, and possibly Q. costaricensis, in the Cordillera Talamanca north of Cerro de la Muerte.

    Commentary: This Leccinum is reminiscent of L. crocipodium (Letell.) Watling as currently outlined by Lannoy and Estades (1995). Recent accounts in North America (Smith, Thiers, and Watling 1967; Smith and Thiers 1971) indicate that it occurs in the eastern United States. However, as circumscribed by those authors, that taxon has a much lighter colored pileus, and perhaps more significantly, the context changes with exposure to a pinkish or salmon to reddish violaceous and finally blackish. The Costa Rican material is consistently dark brown to dark red brown with immutable flesh. Color images can be found at http://www.nybg.org/bsci/res/hall/crocipod.html.

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