Two new species of Russula subsect. Virescentinae from southern China

Two new species from southern China, Russula albolutea and R. subpunicea, were described and illustrated. Russula albolutea is recognized by a yellowish white pileus with long striations at the margin, a white stipe with a yellowish tinge, globose to broadly ellipsoid basidiospores, hymenial cystidia that are mainly clavate and apically often obtuse and turn mauve in sulfovanillin, and a suprapellis mainly consisting of chains of short inflated cells with attenuated terminal cells. Russula subpunicea is characterized by a pinkish to dark pink pileus with striations at the margin, globose to broadly ellipsoid basidiospores with warts and spines sometimes joined to form a reticulum, hymenial cystidia that are mainly clavate, a suprapellis mainly composed of chains of short inflated cells with attenuated terminal cells, and pileocystidia that are mainly clavate and turn reddish in sulfovanillin. In this study, we respectively performed phylogenetic analysis based on the ITS sequence and nrLSU-RPB2-mtSSU dataset. By combining detailed morphological features with multigene phylogenetic evidence, we assigned the new taxa to Russula subsect. Virescentinae.