Thomas Læssøe

University of Copenhagen · Department of Biology & Globe Institute

Four new genera encompassing six new species are described in the Lyophyllaceae ( Agaricales ): the monotypic Australocybe from Australia; the monotypic Phaeotephrocybe from Belize; the monotypic Nigrocarnea from Laos containing the novel conidia-producing species N. radicata and Praearthromyces containing two Asian taxa, the conidia-producing P ....

The genus Morchella has gone through turbulent taxonomic treatments. Although significant progress in Morchella systematics has been achieved in the past decade, several problems remain unresolved and taxonomy in the genus is still in flux. In late 2019, a paper published in the open-access journal Scientific Reports raised serious concerns about t...

This is a point-by-point rebuttal of the paper entitled “High diversity of Morchella and a novel lineage of the esculenta clade from the north Qinling Mountains revealed by GCPSR-based study” by Phanpadith et al. (2019), published in the Open-Access journal Scientific Reports (2019, 9:19856). The present critique is published as supplementary to th...

Fungal and arthropod consumers constitute the vast majority of global terrestrial biodiversity. Yet, the link from richness and composition of producer (plant) communities to the richness of consumer communities is poorly understood. Fungal and arthropod species richness could be a simple function of producer species richness at a site. Alternative...

Novel species of fungi described in this study include those from various countries as follows: Antartica, Cladosporium austrolitorale from coastal sea sand. Australia, Austroboletus yourkae on soil, Crepidotus innuopurpureus on dead wood, Curvularia stenotaphri from roots and leaves of Stenotaphrum secundatum and Thecaphora stajsicii from capsules...

The Danish Fungal Atlas is a citizen science project launched in 2009 in collaboration among the University of Copenhagen, Mycokey and the Danish Mycological Society. The associated database now holds almost 1 million fungal records, contributed by more than 3000 recorders. The records represent more than 8000 fungal species, of which several hundr...

Novel species of fungi described in this study include those from various countries as follows: Algeria, Phaeoacremonium adelophialidum from Vitis vinifera. Antarctica, Comoclathris antarctica from soil. Australia, Coniochaeta salicifolia as endophyte from healthy leaves of Geijera salicifolia, Eremothecium peggii in fruit of Citrus australis, Micr...

The general negative impact of forestry on wood-inhabiting fungal diversity is well recognized, yet the effect of forest naturalness is poorly disentangled among different fungal groups inhabiting dead wood of different tree species. We studied the relationship between forest naturalness, log characteristics and diversity of different fungal morpho...

Novel species of fungi described in this study include those from various countries as follows: Algeria , Phaeoacremonium adelophialidum from Vitis vinifera . Antarctica , Comoclathris antarctica from soil. Australia , Coniochaeta salicifolia as endophyte from healthy leaves of Geijera salicifolia , Eremothecium peggii in fruit of Citrus australis...

We introduce a novel fine-grained dataset and benchmark, the Danish Fungi 2020 (DF20). The dataset, constructed from observations submitted to the Danish Fungal Atlas, is unique in its taxonomy-accurate class labels, small number of errors, highly unbalanced long-tailed class distribution, rich observation metadata, and well-defined class hierarchy...

There were errors in the name of author László G. Nagy and in affiliation no. 31 in the original publication. The original article has been corrected.

The cryptic lifestyle of most fungi necessitates molecular identiication of the guild in environmental studies. Over the past decades, rapid development and afordability of molecular tools have tremendously improved insights of the fungal diversity in all ecosystems and habitats. Yet, in spite of the progress of molecular methods, knowledge about f...

The richness of saproxylic species is commonly found to be compromised in managed forests. However, it is often less clear if this reflects local scarcity of high quality deadwood objects or changes to the overall forest structure. Further, anthropogenic and natural drivers working at the landscape scale may have a strong impact. Hence, it is diffi...

The North European species of Elaphomyces section Elaphomyces ( Eurotiales , Pezizomycotina ) are studied. Three new species, E. citrinopapillatus , E. pusillus , and E. roseoviolaceus are introduced and verified by morphology and sequence data from ITS, nuclear LSU, mitochondrial SSU, and β-tubulin. A lectotype for Elaphomyces granulatus is select...

Typhuloid fungi are a very poorly known group of tiny clavarioid homobasidiomycetes. The phylogenetic position and family classification of the genera targeted here, Ceratellopsis, Macrotyphula, Pterula sensu lato and Typhula, are controversial and based on unresolved phylogenies. Our six-gene phylogeny with an expanded taxon sampling shows that ty...

Typhuloid fungi are a very poorly known group of tiny clavarioid homobasidiomycetes. The phylogenetic position and family classification of the genera targeted here, Ceratellopsis, Macrotyphula, Pterula sensu lato and Typhula, are controversial and based on unresolved phylogenies. Our six-gene phylogeny with an expanded taxon sampling shows that ty...

Consumers constitute the vast majority of global terrestrial biodiversity. Yet, local consumer richness is poorly understood. Plant species richness offers a simple hypothesis to how the diversification of carbon substrates may promote the diversity of arthropods and fungi. We took this one step further and used databases on plant-consumer interact...

The study deals with the last unexplored morphological group of the genus Hodophilus defined by absence of distinct odours, absence of yellow colours and absence of darker dots on the stipe. The phylogenetic reconstruction of the whole genus based on nrITS, nrLSU and RPB2 sequences placed all European members having these morphological characters i...

Hebeloma parvisporum is described as new and placed within H. sect. Porphyrospora. This mushroom is sold as an edible in markets of Laos under the local name “wai khom.” Hebeloma sect. Porphyrospora is discussed and expanded to include the species formerly included in the genus Anamika and recently transferred to Hebeloma. Hebeloma sect. Porphyrosp...

Background: In light of the biodiversity crisis and our limited ability to explain variation in biodiversity, tools to quantify spatial and temporal variation in biodiversity and its underlying drivers are critically needed. Inspired by the recently published ecospace framework, we developed and tested a sampling design for environmental and bioti...

Tree species is one of the most important determinants of wood-inhabiting fungal community composition, yet its relationship with fungal reproductive and dispersal traits remains poorly understood. We studied fungal communities (total of 657 species) inhabiting broadleaved and coniferous dead wood (total of 192 logs) in 12 semi-natural boreal fores...

Near 3000 species mainly of Basidiomycota and Ascomycota from temperate Europe are briefly described and illustrated. The work is organized around so-called fungal wheels that provides a visuel aid to identification at various taxonomic levels

Background In light of the biodiversity crisis and our limited ability to explain variation in biodiversity, tools to quantify spatial and temporal variation in biodiversity and its underlying drivers are critically needed. Inspired by the recently published ecospace framework, we developed and tested a sampling design for environmental and biotic...

The Danish Fungal Atlas was a citizen science project aiming to map Danish macrofungi over five years (2009-13). The atlas contributed > 235,000 records of fruit-body forming Basidiomycota, adding to about 195,000 fungal records from earlier periods. The new records increased the average number of species known per 10 km × 10 km grid cell by 75% fr...

Novel species of fungi described in this study include those from various countries as follows: Australia, Chaetomella pseudocircinoseta and Coniella pseudodiospyri on Eucalyptus microcorys leaves, Cladophialophora eucalypti, Teratosphaeria dunnii and Vermiculariopsiella dunnii on Eucalyptus dunnii leaves, Cylindrium grande and Hypsotheca eucalypto...

This publication presents the first comprehensive account of edible, potentially edible, poisonous, potentially poisonous, and medicinal macro-fungi encountered in northern Laos. A total of 260 species are discussed and a detailed presentation is provided for 142 species accompanied with photos, detailed description, distribution and habitat, use,...

Abstract The majority of Earths biodiversity is unknown. This is particularly true for the vast part of soil biodiversity, which rarely can be observed directly. Metabarcoding of DNA extracted from the environment (eDNA) has become 22 state-of-the-art in assessing soil biodiversity. Also for fungal community profiling eDNA is seen as an attractive...

This book brings together most of what was learned by the Danish basidiomycote atlas project 2009-2013. The project collected data on approx. 3000 Danish fruitbody forming basidiomycotes on an online platform designed for this purpose. All species maps used in the publication to illustrate various points have English legends and there is chapter wi...

The majority of Earths biodiversity is unknown. This is particularly true for the vast part of soil biodiversity, which rarely can be observed directly. Metabarcoding of DNA extracted from the environment (eDNA) has become state-of-the-art in assessing soil biodiversity. Also for fungal community profiling eDNA is seen as an attractive alternative...

Morphological and molecular phylogenetic studies of true morels (Morchella) in North America, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Peru led to the discovery of four undescribed species of Morchella. Two new species in the Elata clade, one from the Dominican Republic, initially distinguished by the informal designation Mel-18, and a newly...

1.Plants regulate soils and microclimate, provide substrate for heterotrophic taxa, are easy to observe and identify and have a stable taxonomy, which strongly justifies their use as indicators in monitoring and conservation. However, there is no consensus as to whether plants are strong predictors of total multi‐taxon species richness. In this stu...

Phylogenetic reconstruction of Hodophilus species with a yellow colour on the stipe based on nrITS, nrLSU and rpb2 sequences revealed six European species. All these species correspond to the widely accepted European concept of a single species Hodophilus micaceus. Four of these species are described and illustrated. H. micaceus and H. phaeoxanthus...

Nomenclatural type definitions are one of the most important concepts in biological nomenclature. Being physical objects that can be re-studied by other researchers, types permanently link taxonomy (an artificial agreement to classify biological diversity) with nomenclature (an artificial agreement to name biological diversity). Two proposals to am...

Sexual spores are important for the dispersal and population dynamics of fungi. They show remarkable morphological diversity, but the underlying forces driving spore evolution are poorly known. We investigated whether trophic status and substrate associations are associated with morphology in 787 macrofungal genera. We show that both spore size and...

Rosellinia desmazieri is illustrated and recorded as new to Denmark from near the German border.

Marasmius hudsonii refound after nearly 30 years near the German border.

The rarely recorded Cudoniella buissonii is reported as new to Denmark - with a coloured illustration

Sirobasidium brefeldianum is reported as new to Denmark - from twigs of Abies

A summary of new activities carried out in 2017 in the Danish fungal atlas project, including a list of new taxa recorded in Denmark in 2017

Hypoxylon ticinense is added to the Danish list based on a collection Fyn island

Plants regulate soils and microclimate, provide substrate for heterotrophic taxa, are easy to observe and identify and have a stable taxonomy, which strongly justifies the use of plants as bioindicators in monitoring and conservation. However, insects and fungi make up the vast majority of species. Surprisingly, it remains untested whether plants a...

Biodiversity is declining on a global scale and the limited resources available for conservation efforts and research need to be used efficiently. Fungi are a megadiverse taxonomic group where lack of knowledge impedes sufficient conservation focus. Inventories of fungi require a high level of expertise and are difficult and expensive due to season...

Hodophilus atropunctus is traditionally defined as the only species of this genus with dark brown or black dots on the stipe. Multi-locus phylogenetic reconstruction recognised two distinct clades morphologically corresponding to this species concept. The limited morphological description in the protologue of H. atropunctus and absence of a type sp...

Elaphomyces (‘deer truffles’) is one of the most important ectomycorrhizal fungal genera in temperate and subarctic forest ecosystems, but also one of the least documented in public databases. The current systematics are mainly based on macromorphology, and is not significantly different from that proposed by Vittadini (1831). Within the 49 species...

Documenting succession in forest canopy gaps provides insights into the ecological processes governing the temporal dynamics of species within communities. We analyzed the fruiting patterns of a rare but widely distributed saproxylic macromycete, Xylobolus subpileatus, during the ageing of natural canopy gaps in oak forests. In one of the last rema...

Rosellinia – a World Monograph. L. E. Petrini . Bibliotheca Mycologica, vol. 205. Stuttgart: J. Cramer in der Gebrüder Borntraeger Verlagsbuchhandlung. 2013. 410 pp., 72 figures. ISBN 978 3 443 59107 6, ISSN 0067 8066. 119 € (paperback). - Volume 74 Issue 2 - Thomas Læssøe

Climacodon septentrionalis has been rediscovered in 2016 with the last record from around 1983. Both the new and the latest records are from old beech, the new one from a very old but still healthy looking tree with the trunk exposed to sunlight.

A new southern bolete, Butyriboletus fuscoroseus, has come to light in bulk in one site in 2016 and after that, it was discovered that older records from the same site plus another site lurked in the depths of the databases. One of the sites is on stiff clay and the bolete grew in mixed Fagus, Carpinus and Quercus stands in association with fungi s...

The Danish status of Mycoaciella (Phlebia) bispora is reviewed, and based on recent records, it is suggested that it may have been overlooked in the past. It prefers very boggy woodland

The asexual ascomycote Stephanoma tetracoccum is reported as new to Denmark based on material from both Trichoglossum and Geoglossum.

2016 was a very busy year for the atlas team with the introduction of a new data portal that was improved and changed several times during the year based on input from the users and now stands as a solid portal with multiple search possibilities. It is based on “material design” principles involving end-users actively in the design process. Recent...

Taphrophila argyllensis was found on damp Cladium mariscus and compared to other Taphrophila species.

Rhizocybe vermicularis is illustrated and reported with new records from two previously known sites in northern Denmark

Tubulicrinis strangulatus is illustrated. It was found in an old Picea stand with logs dominated by Fomitopsis pinicola.

We here report the following 20 species of non-lichenized bitunicate ascomycetes as new to Norway: Antealophiotrema brunneosporum, Botryosphaeria corticola, Capronia munkii, Capronia normandinae, Capronia parasitica, Capronia spinifera, Exosporiella fungorum, Helminthosporium oligosporum, Jahnula aquatica, Lophiostoma fuckelii, Lophiostoma rugulosu...

Based on material from Sweden and Denmark a new species of Maireina is described. It produces tiny, pale yellow brown, cyphelloid basidiomata at the very base of Filipendula ulmaria in grazed forest meadows. Phylogenetically it falls within the Niaceae clade with sisterrelations to Cyphellopsis/Merismodes. It differs from M. maxima by habitat and b...

Woody plants host diverse communities of associated organisms, including woodinhabiting fungi. In this group, host effects on species richness and interaction network structure are not well understood, especially not at large geographical scales. We investigated ecological, historical and evolutionary determinants of fungal species richness and net...

The authors have participates in field work in the Laotian province Xieng Khouang in connection with two projects, one funded by the Darwin Initiative (UK), implemented by Laotian ministry of Science and Technology, an done by the Global Environment Fund, implemented by FAO, UNPD and the Laotian ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The basis of th...

A number of recent records of Coniophora fusispora from dry, open vegetation are listed and commented upon.

Clavaria sphagnophila is reported from two Danish Sphagnum bogs. It has has not been reported previously but it is not unlikely that older records are hidden under C. argillacea.

The genus Mycena s.l. is the fifth volume in the series Fungi of Northern Europe. It provides identification keys, descriptions, color photographs, drawings of microscopical features of 113 northern European species of Mycena s.l. (including Resinomycena, Roridomyces, Atheniella and Phloeomana)

Cephaloscypha mairei is reported as new to Denmark based on three collections - one from Pteridium and two from Dryopteris.

A short update in given on the progress on the analyses of soil derived DNA sequences from the project Biowide - A Danish plot study covered 130 plots of 40 x 40 m nationwide.

We formulate five guidelines for introducing new genera, plus one recommendation how to publish the results of scientific research. We recommend that reviewers and editors adhere to these guidelines. We propose that the underlying research is solid, and that the results and the final solutions are properly discussed. The six criteria are: (1) all g...

For a monograph based on a polythetic concept, several thousands of herbarium specimens, and several hundreds of freshly collected and cultured specimens of Daldinia and allied Xylariaceae, originating from around the world, were studied for morphological traits, including by SEM, and chemically by HPLC profiles using UV-visible and mass spectromet...