Three new species of Herpothallon (Lichenized Ascomycota) from Southern China

This paper describes three species of Herpothallon new to science from southern China: H. glaucescens, H. lilacinum and H. tomentosum. The three species all possess a non-pigmented thallus, hypothallus and prothallus. Herpothallon glauces-cens has a white, whitish grey to greyish green thallus and swollen, subglobose to +/- vermiform pseudisidia, rounded at the top. Herpothallon lilacinum has subglobose or irregularly cushion-shaped, fluffy-felty pseudisidia, white at the base, lilac to lilac grey at their tips. Herpothallon tomentosum has globular pseudisidia, felty with many projecting hyphae, sometimes containing a central pycnidium. Detailed descriptions for all three new species are provided with an updated key to the genus Herpothallon in China. Additionally, a phylogenetic tree based on Bayesian and ML analyses of mtSSU data shows the posi-tion of the new species in Herpothallon.

Automated summary

This paper reports three new species from southern China: H. glaucescens, H. lilacinum, and H. tomentosum. All three species have non-pigmented thallus, hypothallus, and prothallus. Detailed descriptions of the three new species are provided, along with an updated key to the genus Herpothallon in China. A phylogenetic tree based on mtSSU data shows the position of the new species in Herpothallon.