Tuesday 24 May 2016

Truncospora wisconsinensis: A new species of Bracket Fungus from Wisconsin.

Bracket Fungi, Polyporales, are Basidiomycote Fungi that predominantly grow on dead, rotting, wood, though some species are significant pathogens of trees and woody plants. They produce distinctive fruiting bodies on the outside of the wood, which are shelf or bracket shaped with the spore-producing basidia on the underside. Bracket fungi found in commercial woodlands and those which attack structural timber have been well studied, but the group is know to be much more diverse in old-growth woodland, where it has been little studied.

In a paper published in the journal Phytotaxa on 14 April 2016, Chang-Lin Zhao, Feng Xu and Donald Pfister of the Farlow Herbarium of Cryptogamic Botany at Harvard University describe a new species of Bracket Fungus from Lakeshore Nature Reserve in Dane County, Wisconsin.

The new species is placed in the genus Truncospora and given the specific name wisconsinensis, meaning 'from Wisconsin'. The Fungus was found growing on fallen Oak trees, where it produces white fruiting bodies. A genomic phylogenetic analyses suggests that this species is closely related to two other North American Bracket Fungi, Truncospora ohiensis and Truncospora arizonica.

Fruiting body of Truncospora wisconsinensis. Scale bar is 1 cm. Zhao et al. (2016).

See also...

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http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/jahnula-purpurea-new-species-of.htmlJahnula purpurea: A new species of Ascomycote Fungo from Martinique. Ascomycote Fungi of the order Jahnulales are aquatic wood decomposing Fungi found almost exclusively in freshwater environments (one species is known from Mangroves). Members of the genus Jahnula, from which the family gets its name, are primarily tropical...
http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/two-new-species-of-coral-fungi-from.htmlTwo new species of Coral Fungi from the Ozark region of Arkansas.                                      Coral Fungi of the genus Ramariahave been extensively studied in the temperate rainforests of the American Pacific Northwest, and to a lesser extent in the forests of America’s Eastern Seaboard, but are...
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