Loweomyces


Loweomyces is a genus of six species of poroid fungi in the family Steccherinaceae.

Taxonomy

It was originally circumscribed as a subgenus of Spongipellis by the Czech mycologists František Kotlaba and Zdeněk Pouzar in 1976. Swiss mycologist Walter Jülich promoted it to a genus segregate from Spongipellis in 1982, with two species: L. fractipes, and L. wynneae. Jülich thought the genus should be distinct from Spongipellis based on the larger basidia, the absence of skeletal hyphae, and smaller tubes. L. fractipes and L. wynneae have had their generic positions confirmed with molecular phylogenetics, and both group in the "residual polyploid clade", one of four main lineages of the Polyporales. The genus is named in honour of American mycologist and polypore specialist Josiah Lincoln Lowe.

Description

Loweomyces is distinguished by the ease of spore germination in growth media, larger basidia, the absence of skeletal hyphae, and smaller tubes, plates or spines, compared with European Spongipellis species. Fruit bodies are either crust-like or have a cap and stipe. The hyphal system is either monomitic or dimitic.

Species

The genus contained four species as of 2015. Two new species from Brazil were described in 2016.