Helvella sublactea Q. Zhao, M. Wang & Y. C. Zhao

Helvella sublactea Q. Zhao, M. Wang & Y.C. Zhao (FIGURE 2) Description:—Apothecia irregularly lobed or saddle-shaped, 10–30 mm high, 20–40 mm broad, edges fused with stipe; hymenium smooth without hairs, creamy to greyish brown when fresh, brownish when dried; receptacle surface without hairs, whitish when fresh, light grey when dried (FIGURE 2A). Stipe 20–40 mm long, 5–20 mm broad, expands to upwards and fuses with edges of pileus, cream to light greyish, becoming creamy when dried, covered in fine hairs, with deep longitudinal ribs, few anastomoses between furrows, with white mycelium at the base (FIGURE 2A). Ectal excipulum 60–70 μm broad, of textura angularis, hyaline. Medullary excipulum 220–300 μm broad, of textura intricata, hyaline, formed 3–4 μm broad hyphae. Asci 250–300 × 13–20 μm, 8-spored, uniseriate, pleurorhynchous base, subcylindrical to clavate (Figs 2B, E, G). Paraphyses 2–4 μm broad, septate, rarely branched, filiform, slightly exceeding the asci, with a yellow refractive content in Melzer’s reagent, apices spear-like and irregularly enlarged to 5–10 μm broad (Figs 2E, F). Ascospores (14) 15–17 (19) × 10–13.5 μm, Q = (1.3) 1.4–1.6 (1.7), ellipsoid, hyaline, smooth-wall and uniguttulate (Figs 2C, D). Specimens examined: — Türkiye, Erzurum-Kars province Sarıkamış district, under conifer trees, 40°26’32”N 42°29’56”E, 2427m 20.05.2021, MEA 141, VANF 7892. Habitat and distribution: —Solitary or gregarious on the soil under Castanea spp. or Quercus spp. trees. Only known from high altitude localities in southwestern China (Wang et al. 2016). Notes: — Helvella sublactea is morphologically and phylogenetically close to H. fuscolacunosa and H. ravida. Helvella sublactea has creamy to greyish brown hymenium and broader paraphyse apices, whereas H. fuscolacunosa has grey-brown to almost black hymenium and also differs with cylindrical and narrower (up to 17 µm) asci (Skrede et al. 2020). Helvella ravida has a white hymenium without any brownish tint and narrower paraphyse apices.Additionally characterized by wider paraphyses (measuring 8–13 µm at the tips) and longer asci (reaching up to 340 µm) (Wang et al. 2023). Phylogenetic analyses using multi and single-locus data indicated that H. sublactea shares a close evolutionary relationship with H.fuscolacunosa and H. ravida (FIGURE1 and Figs S1–S 3).These species share similar characteristics, such as connivant saddle-shaped or irregularly lobed pileus, whitish hymenium, a white surface on the receptacle, and white ribbed stipes, though they can be distinguished by certain features as mention above. Molecularly, H. sublactea is distinguished by 116 substitutions from H. fuscolacunosa (92 in ITS and 24 in LSU) and 103 substitutions from H. ravida (79 in ITS, 17 in LSU, and 7 in TEF 1-α).