The genus of basidiomycetous fungi, Leucoagaricus, occurs worldwide, from subtropical to boreal latitudes. Several collections of Leucoagaricus were made during mycological field trips conducted in different forests of Margalla, Pakistan. An integrative framework combining morphological and phylogenetic data was employed for their study. As a result, the two species La.margallensis and La.glareicolor are here described as new to science. Detailed macro- and micro-morphological descriptions, and a molecular phylogenetic reconstruction based on nrITS and LSU sequence data are provided and used to discriminate the new species from morphologically and phylogenetically close taxa. Whereas, our phylogenetic tree inference gave unequivocal support for the inclusion of these two species within the section Leucoagaricus.
Keywords: Bayesian analysis; Islamabad; Margalla; systematics.
Shazia Ashraf, Arooj Naseer, Muhammad Usman, Abdul Nasir Khalid.