On the Typification of Ganoderma sichuanense (Agaricomycetes)-the Widely Cultivated Lingzhi Medicinal Mushroom.

The well-known and widely cultivated lingzhi has had a significant impact on Chinese culture and is now an important fungal crop providing medicinal benefits to human health and economic value to social development within China and around the world. The European mushroom name, Ganoderma lucidum, has been misapplied to this species for over 100 years until recently reidentified as G. sichuanense. Soon after this, a new species name, G. lingzhi, was also proposed for the fungus because of an unusual internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequence purportedly of the holotype of G. sichuanense. This extraordinary ITS sequence, which apparently belongs to another species, created an inconsistency between morphological characteristics and molecular data of the holotype making it "demonstrably ambiguous"; this led to an epitypification to support the holotype for the precise application of the name, according to the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants. However, arguments concerning the names G. sichuanense and G. lingzhi are still heating up, including attempts to reject the epitype of G. sichuanense. To clarify the confusion, the typification of G. sichuanense is reviewed here to demonstrate that the epitype of G. sichuanense was appropriately designated for the purpose to support the holotype of the name, the fact that both G. sichuanense and G. lingzhi are conspecific, and that the name G. lingzhi was based on the unwarranted ITS sequence claimed to be of the holotype of G. sichuanense. Suggestions are made for this case to make a way forward, especially re-examination of relevant fungarium collections to reach a consensus to stabilize the use of the name.

J. M. Despréaux' lichens from the Canary Islands and West Africa: an account of a 19th century collection found in an English archive.

This is an historical and descriptive account of 28 herbarium specimens, 27 lichens and an alga, found in the archives of Charles Chalcraft, a descendant of the Bedford family, who were dye manufacturers in Leeds, England, in the 19th century. The lichens comprise 13 different morphotypes collected in the Canary Islands and West Africa by the French botanist J. M. Despréaux between 1833 and 1839. The collections include samples of "Roccella fuciformis", "R. phycopsis" and "R. tinctoria" (including the fertile morphotype "R. canariensis"), "Ramalina crispatula" and "R. cupularis", two distinct morphotypes of "Sticta", "S. canariensis" and "S. dufouri", "Physconia enteroxantha", "Pseudevernia furfuracea var. ceratea" and "Pseudocyphellaria argyracea". The herbarium also includes authentic material of "Parmotrema tinctorum" and a probable syntype of "Seirophora scorigena". Most of these species are known as a source of the purple dye orchil, which was used to dye silk and wool.