Lichenomphalia altoandina, a new species of Hygrophoraceae from the Chilean Altiplano

Abstract

Lichenomphalia is a lichenized agaric genus characterized by its omphalinoid basidiomes.Lichenomphalia species are associated with unicellular green algae in the genus Coccomyxa andare mainly distributed in polar and alpine habitats. The aim of this work is to describe L.altoandina, a new species from northern Chile that grows among cushion plants over 3000 mabove sea level in the Andes Mountains. The species is remarkable for living in highly salineenvironments, in some cases virtually on salt crusts. Lichenomphalia altoandina differs from otherknown species and particularly from L. aurantiaca, the most morphologically similar species, in itssmooth and broader stipe and its slightly larger spores. Lichenomphalia altoandina is alsomorphologicaly and ecologically more similar to the core Lichenomphalia clade. Our phylogeneticstudy based on nuclear rDNA ITS and partial 28S sequences shows that L. altoandina belongs tothe Protolichenomphalia clade and is sister to an unknown lineage, L. aff. umbellifera, from NewZealand.