Steppe vegetation on sandy soil in Hungary has recently been revealed as one of the hot spots in Europe for the stalked puffballs (genus Tulostoma). In the framework of the taxonomic revision of gasteroid fungi in Hungary, four Tulostoma species are described here as new to science: T.dunense, T.hungaricum, T.sacchariolens and T.shaihuludii. The study is based on detailed macro- and micromorphological investigations (including light and scanning electron microscopy), as well as a three-locus phylogeny of nrDNA ITS, nrDNA LSU and tef1-α sequences. The ITS and LSU sequences generated from the type specimen of T.cretaceum are provided and this resolved partly the taxonomy of the difficult species complex of T.aff.cretaceum.
Keywords: Gasteroid; Pannonian inland sand dune thicket; Tulostomataceae; hot spot; molecular systematics; phylogeny; taxonomy.
Péter Finy, Mikael Jeppson, Dániel G. Knapp, Viktor Papp, László Albert, István Ölvedi, Károly Bóka, Dóra Varga, Gábor M. Kovács, Bálint Dima.