Sparassis cystidiosa sp. nov. from Thailand is described using morphological and molecular data

Sparassis cystidiosa, collected recently from a primary montane cloud forest in northern Thailand is described as new. It is distinct from all others species in the genus because of the presence of hymenial cystidia, relatively large basidiospores and flabellae composed of six distinct layers of tissue. Analyses of a combined dataset of DNA sequences from three genes support its distinction and suggest that the S. cystidiosa lineage is the sister group of all other Sparassis.