Under the auspices of the Venice Museum of Natural History, US and European mycologists jointly revise the taxonomy of a group of fungi independently described in the two continents, and discover for the first time many unexpected synonymies and new taxonomic combinations.

Voto, P., Dovana, F., Garbelotto, M. 2019. A revision of the genus Psathyrella, with a focus on subsection Spadiceogriseae. Fungal Systematics and Evolution (4) 97-170. PDF

Journal Issue – Article – Supplementary Figures

Mycologist Pietro Voto and the U.C Berkeley Forest Pathology and Mycology Laboratory are using a combined morphological and molecular approach to study a group of species within the fungal genus Psathyrella traditionally included in the subsection Spadiceogriseae sensu Kits van Waren (Section Spadiceogriseae). This group is characterized by intermediate spore size (for the genus), by obtuse pleurocystids, and especially by gills bearing a large number of paracystids of various shapes, ranging from club-like to spherical-pedunculated, bearing undifferentiated tips. Our study focuses on both Italian and North American taxa deposited in the Michigan Herbarium (MICH) by A.H. Smith, with the intent of comparing and contrasting species from the two different continents, to provide the first broader description ever performed of the entire spadiceogrisea group of the genus Psathyrella. We are grateful to Patricia Rogers from the Michigan Herbarium for the great support given to the study, and to Francesco Dovana for assistance with the phylogenetic analysis. The Italian species will be deposited in the Museum of Natural History in Venice.