Two previously unknown species of gelatinous, wood-decaying mushrooms have been formally described from southern and eastern China, expanding the known diversity of the genus Favolaschia in the country. The new species, named Favolaschia guangxiensis and Favolaschia microcarpa, were identified from six specimens collected during surveys of wood-inhabiting fungi in Guangxi Autonomous Region and Zhejiang Province. Both belong to Favolaschia section Anechinus, a group within the family Mycenaceae of the order Agaricales, and their description is based on a combination of morphological characters and phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequence data.
The findings, published in the journal MycoKeys, bring the number of Favolaschia species recorded in China to 22. Favolaschia is a genus of small fungi characterised by gelatinous fruiting bodies, poroid hymenophores — the spore-bearing surface is perforated with pores rather than gills — hyphae that usually bear clamp connections, and amyloid basidiospores, which stain bluish-black in Melzer’s reagent. Species of the genus grow mostly on decaying tissues of monocotyledons and ferns and cause white rot, breaking down lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose in dead plant material. Favolaschia species occur worldwide except in Antarctica, favouring humid climates, with the greatest species diversity in subtropical and tropical regions.
The genus has a complicated taxonomic history. The name Favolaschia was first published by the French mycologist Narcisse Patouillard in 1887 as a section of the genus Laschia, and was later elevated to generic rank in 1892. In 1974, the mycologist Rolf Singer divided the genus into two sections based on morphology: section Favolaschia, whose members have orange, yellow, red, lateritious or pink caps and acanthocytes in the pileipellis — the outer tissue of the cap — and section Anechinus, which lacks acanthocystidia, these structures being replaced by diverticulate hyphae. Earlier phylogenetic analyses supported the two sections, but more recent molecular studies have shown that they do not form two monophyletic clades, meaning that each section does not trace back to a single common ancestor to the exclusion of the other.
Systematic study of Favolaschia in China has accelerated in recent years. Phylogenetic analyses based on extensive sampling revealed four new species within the F. calocera complex, and later work confirmed that 16 species of Favolaschia were distributed in China. A study published in 2025 described one new species in section Anechinus from China. Before the present study, 20 previously published species had been recorded in the country, four of them belonging to the F. calocera complex of section Favolaschia and the remainder to section Anechinus. As of 27 July 2026, a total of 162 taxonomic records of Favolaschia were listed in Index Fungorum and 183 records in MycoBank, although only around 64 species are currently accepted by specialists.
The six specimens studied were collected in Guangxi and Zhejiang and deposited at the Herbarium of Beijing Forestry University. DNA was extracted from voucher specimens, and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region was amplified with the primer pairs ITS5 and ITS4, while the nuclear large subunit (nLSU) rDNA gene was amplified with LR0R and LR7. The resulting sequences were aligned with reference sequences retrieved from GenBank, and the concatenated ITS1-5.8S-ITS2-nLSU dataset was used to build phylogenetic trees by both maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference methods, with Mycena seminau serving as the outgroup.
The combined dataset included sequences from 124 fungal collections representing 40 taxa, with an aligned length of 1679 characters, of which 1229, or 73.20 percent, were constant, 107, or 6.37 percent, were variable and parsimony-uninformative, and 343, or 20.43 percent, were parsimony-informative. The topologies obtained from the maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses were largely congruent, and both methods revealed that the newly collected specimens formed two new highly supported lineages. A branch was considered strongly supported when it met both a maximum likelihood bootstrap value of at least 75 percent and a Bayesian posterior probability of at least 0.95.
Three of the specimens, Wu 3705, Wu 3704 and Wu 3637, formed an independent, strongly supported lineage with support values of 100 and 0.98, representing F. guangxiensis, which is closely related to F. miscanthi. The other three specimens, Wu 3254, Wu 3255 and Wu 4193, formed another independent, strongly supported lineage with support values of 100 and 1, representing F. microcarpa, which is closely related to F. bannaensis. These molecular results, together with the distinctive morphological features of each collection, justified the description of the two species as new to science.
Favolaschia guangxiensis is characterised by its greyish-white fruiting bodies when fresh, broadly ellipsoid basidiospores measuring 6.2 to 11 by 4.1 to 9 micrometres, and its growth on dead bamboo. Its caps are 2 to 8 by 1 to 3 millimetres, conchoid or semicircular in shape, gelatinous and translucent when fresh, and turn pale gray upon drying. The hymenophore bears roughly 15 to 40 pores per basidiocarp, with mature pores 0.2 to 0.5 millimetres in diameter, round to polygonal, larger near the base and smaller near the edge, and the species lacks a stipe. The holotype was collected on 23 July 2025 at Bazhaigou Scenic Area in Qinzhou, Guangxi, at 74 metres above sea level, with paratypes from Shiwandashan National Forest Park in Fangchenggang and the same Qinzhou locality. The species name refers to Guangxi Autonomous Region, where it was collected.
Favolaschia microcarpa is distinguished by its very small, white fruiting bodies, measuring just 1 to 3 by 1 to 2 millimetres, and broadly ellipsoid to subglobose basidiospores of 6.3 to 11 by 5.1 to 9 micrometres. It grows on Miscanthus, a genus of grasses, and on the windmill palm Trachycarpus fortunei. Its hymenophore carries only 4 to 16 pores per basidiocarp, with tubes up to 0.1 millimetres long, and the cap surface is transparent with a reticulate pattern matching the pores below. The holotype was collected on 24 June 2025 at Dongtianmu Mountain Scenic Area in Lin’an District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, at 460 metres above sea level, with paratypes from East Tianmu Mountain and West Tianmu Mountain National Nature Reserve, the latter growing on Trachycarpus fortunei. The species name refers to its very small fruiting bodies.
Both new species can be separated from their morphologically similar relatives by a combination of characters. F. guangxiensis resembles F. aulaxina and F. flabelliformis in having gelatinous fruiting bodies and similarly coloured caps, but F. aulaxina has pores forming radially distant lamellae at the edges and a short stipe, while F. flabelliformis has smaller caps, smaller pores and longer basidia, the spore-producing cells measuring 28.5 to 35 micrometres in length compared with 16 to 23 micrometres in F. guangxiensis. F. miscanthi, its closest phylogenetic relative, has a white cap surface when fresh, oblong-ellipsoid basidiospores, longer basidia of 32 to 45 micrometres and narrower cheilocystidia of 7 to 10 micrometres in diameter, and the two taxa show approximately 2 percent ITS sequence divergence. F. microcarpa, meanwhile, is similar to F. rigida and F. semicircularis, all belonging to section Anechinus subsection Rubrinae and sharing pure white to white fruiting bodies when fresh, but F. rigida has an obvious stipe, a faintly pruinose cap surface when dry and lacks cheilocystidia, while F. semicircularis has an obvious stipe and longer basidia of 24 to 32 micrometres. F. bannaensis, its closest relative, can be distinguished by larger caps, bigger basidia of 30 to 38 by 7 to 10 micrometres, and growth on bamboo or rotten angiosperms, and the ITS sequence similarity between F. microcarpa and F. bannaensis is approximately 97 percent.
The discovery of the two new species enriches the known diversity of Favolaschia in eastern and southern China and demonstrates that species of the genus can occur on diverse poaceous and palm substrates, including bamboo, Trachycarpus and Miscanthus. Wood-inhabiting fungi such as these play important roles in decomposing lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose, thereby driving material cycling and carbon storage in forest ecosystems. With fungal taxonomic research advancing continuously in China, numerous new Favolaschia species, especially in section Anechinus, have been gradually discovered in the country in recent years, and future investigations are expected to reveal more taxa of this genus in subtropical China.
Subject of Research: Taxonomic description and phylogenetic analysis of two new Favolaschia mushroom species from southern and eastern China
Article Title: Two new species of Favolaschia ( Mycenaceae , Agaricales ) from southern and eastern China
Article References: Wang, Y.-H., Zheng, Z.-W., Guan, Q.-X., Li, W.-Y., Liu, S.-B., Zeng, G.-Y., & Wu, F. (2026). Two new species of Favolaschia (Mycenaceae, Agaricales) from southern and eastern China. MycoKeys, 143, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.3897/mycokeys.143.212718
Image Credits: AI Generated
DOI: 10.3897/mycokeys.143.212718
Keywords: Favolaschia, Mycenaceae, Agaricales, new species, China, wood-inhabiting fungi, phylogenetics, ITS, nLSU, taxonomy, white rot, biodiversity
News Source: Drew Townsend. (November 5, 2026). Two New Gelatinous Mushroom Species Unearthed in China. Scienmag.
