Ceriporia armeniaca Y. C. Dai, Chao G. Wang & Yuan Yuan 2025, sp. nov.

Ceriporia armeniaca Y. C. Dai, Chao G. Wang & Yuan Yuan sp. nov. Figs 4, 5 Etymology. Armeniaca (Lat.): refers to the species having an apricot pore surface when dry. Diagnosis. Differs from other Ceriporia species by resupinate basidiomata with a white pore surface when fresh, apricot when dry, round to angular pores of 5–7 per mm, subicular hyphae distinctly wider than tramal hyphae, lunate to allantoid basidiospores measuring 4–4.5 × 2–2.2 µm. Type. CHINA • Guangdong Province, Guangzhou, Baiyunshan Forest Park, on fallen angiosperm branch, 18 April 2023, Dai 24678 A (BJFC 042232, holotype). Description. Basidiomata annual, resupinate, soft, without odor or taste when fresh, consistently soft when fresh and dry, up to 5 cm long, 3 cm wide, and 0.2 mm thick at the center. Pore surface white when fresh, becoming apricot upon drying; sterile margin indistinct to almost lacking; pores round to angular, 5–7 per mm; dissepiments thin, lacerate. Subiculum very thin to almost absent. Tubes concolorous with pore surface, soft when dry, up to 0.2 mm long. Hyphal system monomitic; generative hyphae simple septate, hyaline, IKI -, CB +; tissues becoming orange-brown in KOH. Subicular hyphae slightly thick-walled with a wide lumen, abundantly covered with small to large hyaline crystals and oily substances, sometimes encrusted with fine crystals and oily substances, frequently branched at more or less a right angle, straight, slightly interwoven, 5–7 µm in diam. Tramal hyphae thin-walled with a wide lumen, abundantly covered with rhombic or irregular hyaline crystals and olive oily substances, sometimes encrusted with fine crystals and oily substances, frequently branched, straight to slightly flexuous, subparallel along the tubes, agglutinated, 3–4 µm in diam. Cystidia and cystidioles absent. Basidia clavate, with four sterigmata and a simple basal septum, 11–15.5 × 4–6 µm; basidioles clavate to pyriform, smaller than basidia. Basidiospores lunate to allantoid, hyaline, thin-walled, smooth, sometimes with one or two small guttules, IKI -, CB -, 4–4.5 (– 5) × 2–2.2 µm, L = 4.19 µm, W = 2.09 µm, Q = 2.01 (n = 30 / 1). Notes. Ceriporia armeniaca is closely related to C. arbuscula C. C. Chen & Sheng H. Wu and C. hinnulea Y. C. Dai, Chao G. Wang & Yuan Yuan, but C. arbuscula has a yellowish brown to pale brown pore surface when dry, short and tortuously branched and narrower subicular hyphae (2–5 μm diam. vs. 5–7 µm in diam., Chen et al. 2020), and smaller basidiospores (3–3.5 × 1–1.5 μm vs. 4–4.5 × 2–2.2 µm, Chen et al. 2020); Ceriporia hinnulea is distinguished from C. armeniaca by a fawn to cinnamon pore surface when dry, narrower subicular hyphae without crystals or oily substances (3–5 μm diam. vs. 5–7 µm in diam., Wang et al. 2023), and relatively smaller basidiospores (3.5–4 × 2–2.1 µm vs. 4–4.5 × 2–2.2 µm, Wang et al. 2023). In addition, these three species form three independent lineages in the Ceriporia clade (Fig. 1). Ceriporia alba M. Pieri & B. Rivoire, C. camaresiana (Bourdot & Galzin) Bondartsev & Singer and C. rhodella (Fr.) Donk all have white pore surfaces when fresh. However, the first two have bigger pores (3–4 per mm in C. alba, 1–3 per mm in C. camaresiana vs. 5–7 per mm, Ryvarden and Gilbertson 1993; Pieri and Rivoire 1997) and bigger basidiospores (5.5–7 × 2–2.5 μm in C. alba, 5–6 × 2–3 μm in C. camaresiana vs. 4–4.5 × 2–2.2 µm, Ryvarden and Gilbertson 1993; Pieri and Rivoire 1997); C. rhodella has narrower basidiospores (3.5–4 × 1.5–2 μm vs. 4–4.5 × 2–2.2 µm, Lombard and Gilbertson 1965).