A new species of Hygroaster (Hygrophoraceae, Agaricales) from Colombia

Abstract

A new taxon of Hygroaster is proposed as H, cleefii. The collections representing this species were found in tropical lowland forests in the Departments of Caqueta and Chocó and on the Gorgona Islands of Colombia. The small size, the dark color of the basidiocarps and the translucent pileus surface are the macroscopic features that characterize this species. Hygroaster cleefii has smaller spores with longer spines than the other darkly pigmented species, H. nodulisporus. The presence of clamp connections differentiates H. cleefii, from the neotropical species of the genus.