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The Bachu mushroom, previously identified as Helvella leucopus, is characterized by a saddle-shaped, to irregularly lobed pileus, with a gray, brown to blackish hymenium and a whitish to pale receptacle surface and white, terete stipe with enlarged basal grooves. It has high economic value, mostly as a dietary supplement in western China, and its medicinal functions have raised broad interest. In the present paper species of the Bachu mushroom in Xinjiang Autonomous Region, western China were investigated with morphology and DNA sequence data. Phylogenetic analyses inferred from ITS, 28S and TEF1 sequence data strongly supported lineages corresponding to morphological features. The Bachu mushroom, which differs from the European Helvella leucopus, comprises two distinct new species, namely Helvella bachu and Helvella subspadicea. In this paper we introduce the new species with descriptions and figures and compare them with similar taxa. The European Helvella spadicea is also reexamined, described and illustrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on morphology, fungal species have been considered widespread and as a result names of species from Europe or eastern North America were applied to species in western North America. However, DNA sequences have shown that many western taxa are different from their European counterparts; one such case is presented here. Comparisons of ITS and LSU rDNA sequences from ectomycorrhizal root tips and ascomata of specimens identified as Helvella lacunosa from North America, Europe and Asia revealed that the taxa from western North America and Mexico formed a well supported clade different from the eastern North American, European and Asian taxa. Within this western North American clade there are at least four taxa. Here we describe two of these western taxa as new species: Helvella vespertina and Helvella dryophila. Helvella vespertina is a bigger version of H. lacunosa, is variable in hymenial color and shape and forms ectomycorrhizae with conifers; it fruits typically Oct-Jan. Helvella dryophila is characterized by a dark almost black, squat pileus, a light stipe when young, medium size and forms ectomycorrhizae with Quercus species; it fruits Jan-Jun. Due to insufficient material, the two other Helvella taxa are discussed but not formally described here. We also examined the Hypomyces and other mycoparasites associated with the ascomata of Helvella species and discuss misleadingly labeled sequences in public databases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]