The velvet parachute (Marasmius elegans): a surprisingly variable species across its range with an uncanny QLD doppelganger.

The velvet parachute (Marasmius elegans): a surprisingly variable species across its range with an uncanny QLD doppelganger.

Frances E. GuardRoom 1: Cinema

Frances E. Guard (University of Southern Queensland); John Dearnaley (University of Southern Queensland); Teresa Lebel (State Herbarium of South Australia).

1. First described in SA by John Cleland in 1933, Marasmius elegans has been recorded across southern Australia and in New Zealand. Specimens from southeast Queensland were generally less robust and considered a possible second species. The first QLD specimen sequenced supported this hypothesis, as did significant microscopic character differences of the stipe. However, a study of multiple collections from across the full putative range of M. elegans, showed the species does occur in Queensland, but a more complex picture has emerged. The material examined is highly variable across the geographic range, but molecularly shows less than 4bp difference in the ITS gene from SA to QLD & NZ. Western Australia is an outlier and more specimens need to be sequenced. But that QLD doppelganger?

Frances Guard: franguard@icloud.com
Mon 2:38 pm - 12:00 am
Symposium: Cryptic species
fungi
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