Pholiota chocenensis-a new European species of section Spumosae (Basidiomycota, Strophariaceae)

A new species Pholiota chocenensis is described based on collections from the Czech Republic and Italy. Both the macro- and micromorphology and the the ITS-LSU rDNA sequences showed that P. chocenensis differs from all European species of Pholiota sect. Spumosae. Its key diagnostic characters are: medium-sized fruitbodies, pileus strongly glutinous, yellow-brown to orange with a rusty-brown tinge, with paler margin covered by whitish fibrillose-flocculose veil remnants, stipe covered with distinct, dense, fibrillose-floccose to floccose-scaly veil remnants of yellow-rusty to rusty-orange colour, spores ovoid, 6.4-8 x 4.4-4.8 mu m, abundant cheilo- and pleurocystidia of utriform to fusiform-lageniform shape, growth on soil. Molecularly, it is unique by a 68-bp-long insert in the ITS-LSU rDNA gene which is absent in other Pholiota species. Similar European and North American taxa are compared. A possible synonymy of P. brunnescens with P. highlandensis is discussed.