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Pachycudonia spathulata (S. Imai) S. Imai
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- Scientific name
- Pachycudonia spathulata
- Author
- (S. Imai) S. Imai
- Common names
- IUCN Specialist Group
Cup-fungi, Truffles and Allies- Kingdom
- Fungi
- Phylum
- Ascomycota
- Class
- Leotiomycetes
- Order
- Helotiales
- Family
- Incertae sedis
- Assessment status
- Published
- Assessment date
- 2024-12-15
- IUCN Red List Category
- LC
- Assessors
- Noah Siegel (25 Prospect Hill Road, Royalston, MA 01368, US / Global Fungus Assessment); Gregory Mueller (Chicago Botanic Garden / IUCN SSC Mushroom, Bracket and Puffball Specialist Group)
- Reviewers
- David Minter (CABI International, UK / IUCN SSC Cup-fungus, Truffle and Ally Specialist Group)
Assessment Notes
The content on this page is fetched from The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/198481380/198487264
Justification
Pachycudonia spathulata is a small fungus with an irregularly rounded, convoluted to somewhat spatulate, bright golden yellow to orange ‘head’, a pale orange stipe that becomes brownish from the base upwards in age, and leathery, non-gelatinous flesh. Most reports are from winter and early spring from under Arctostaphylos spp.It remains a poorly known species, but was recently included in "A Field Guide to the Rare Fungi of California’s National Forests" (Siegel et al. 2019) and "FunDiS Rare 10 Challenge" (Fungal Diversity 2020).
Based on habitat and current reports, this species is likely to be far more common than records indicate. It is assessed as Least Concern.
Taxonomic notes
Described as Cudonia spathulata based on a 1931 collection made in Big Basin State Park in Santa Cruz County, California, USA (Imai 1942), and later transferred into the genus Pachycudonia (Imai 1950). It has also been placed in the genus Spathularia (Mains 1956).Genetic studies (Ge et al. 2014) suggest that Pachycudonia can be considered a synonym of Cudonia. No genetic analysis has been done on Pachycudonia spathulata, but based on micro-features, there is no evidence to suggest it doesn't belong in Cudonia.
Geographic range
This species is known from southern Oregon through the Sierra Nevada foothills, and eastern slopes of the coast range and around the northern portion of the Central Valley of California, south to Santa Cruz, County, California with two reports from northern British Columbia and two reports from northern Alaska. These northern reports may represent a different species as the habitat is very different from that noted in the more southern, and more abundant, reports; however they are retained in the assessment for now. It is probably under reported and more widespread in California and Oregon than currently known.Population and Trends
The population remains poorly documented, however as this species has become better known, more subpopulations have been reported. The scarcity of reports probably has more to do with the fact that this species has not appeared in popular field guides.
Based on the habitat it is now known to occur in, this species is probably a lot more common than reported, and stable.
Population Trend: Stable