Cortinarius saniosus

ABSTRACT

Cortinarius saniosus is for the first time reported from tropical and subtropical Florida, greatly extending the geographic and ecological range of what is otherwise a primarily boreal species. Phylogenetic analysis of these specimens revealed a unique genotype only shared among collections of the species from Florida, Indiana, and Tennessee in eastern North America as well as a more divergent additional subtype restricted to the Florida collections and one of the Indiana collections. Other collections from more northern, boreal North America do not cluster with this genotype which suggests there is some level of divergence between boreal and sub-boreal populations in North America, possibly due to population disjunction caused by glaciation events and switches in ectomycorrhizal hosts. Further investigation into the population structure of this widely distributed species and specifically these tropical and subtropical collections would certainly reveal interesting insights into historical biogeography in this species and serve as a model to compare the evolutionary history of other boreal species with ranges extending south into subtropical and tropical areas. This discovery was a result of the dedicated efforts of nonacademic, community mycologists and can hopefully serve as inspiration for others in the community to explore and publish discoveries of their own.