First new species of Fulvifomes (Hymenochaetales, Basidiomycota) from tropical Africa

Fulvifomes is a hymenochaetoid polypore genus currently undergoing re-estimation of its taxonomic and morphological diversity. Numerous new species were described during the last decade but almost exclusively from Neotropics and Eastern Asia. Here, based on morphological and molecular evidence, we describe a new species of Fulvifomes growing on Pseudocedrela kotschyi in Benin. The new species named Fulvifomes yoroui is characterized by perennial, pileate, ungulate basidiomata, and subglobose to globose basidiospores 5.5–6.5 × 4.7–5.6 μm. Analyses of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and nuclear large subunit rDNA (nLSU) datasets with maximum likelihood and Bayesian phylogenetic inference methods show that F. yoroui represents a distinct lineage within Fulvifomes clade. It is the first time that a new species of Fulvifomes is described based on material from tropical Africa. This finding stimulates further investigations of Fulvifomes in tropical Africa.