Austroboletus mutabilis sp. nov. from northern Queensland

Abstract

Austroboletus mutabilis Halling, Osmundson, & Neves is newly described from dry sclerophyll woodlands on the Atherton Tableland and the Paluma Range of northern Queensland. The diagnostic macroscopic feature that distinguishes this taxon from others in the genus, including sympatric taxa, is the striking colour shift on the pileus from deep red to orange and then yellow. Such a dramatic colour shift is newly described for the genus. The basidiospores possess what appears to be a simple, smooth plage as viewed with light microscopy, but a more complex morphology is revealed when viewed with the scanning electron microscope.