Phylogenetic Analysis Reveals Four New Species of Otidea from China

The emergence of molecular systematics has greatly helped researchers to identify fungal species. China has abundant Otidea species resources, and a number of new species of Otidea have been recently proposed. However, many old specimens in herbaria are mainly identified by morphology rather than molecular methods. In this study, 11 specimens deposited in Chinese herbaria and one newly collected Otidea species from northern China were identified based on morphological and phylogenetic analyses. Four gene fragments (ITS, LSU, rpb2, and tef1-α) were used to elucidate the phylogenetic relationships of species within Otidea. A total of nine phylogenetic species are recognized, of which four are described as new species, namely O. bomiensis, O. gongnaisiensis, O. hanzhongensis, and O. shennongjiana. Among the known species were O. aspera and O. sinensis.