Trametes in Australia

Since people keep asking about Trametes specifically, I have written a PRELIMINARY key to Australian species.

Note: this is preliminary only, several other species may occur but are not confirmed, and characters may not always work, especially in older specimens. Since so many records turn out to be different from what they were initially identified as, I only accept species that are vouchered by herbarium collections AND have sequence information - otherwise the list of Trametes would be unrealistic and full of errors. But almost certainly we have more species than what is keyed below - but the missing species are probably mostly rare and tropical.

Note that many other genera ("Coriolopsis", Datronia, Fomitopsis, Funalia, Neofomitella, Rhodofomitopsis and others) can be mistaken for Trametes - this key is ONLY to the core Trametes clade, which is not easy to delimit, even with microscopy. A larger key to all genera species is some time away.

Note that there is an ongoing argument among experts about how to treat genera in the Trametes-lineage. Some people argue for a large Trametes, including Pycnoporus, and this has been taken up by iNaturalist (at least pro tem). Other people argue for splitting Trametes into Artolenzites, Cellullariella, Coriolopsis, Cubamyces[=Leiotrametes], Pilatoporia, Sclerodepsis, and Trametes s.s. [including Lenzites], which means keeping the popular scarlet bracket genus Pycnoporus intact. I have keyed them all together as Trametes, but indicated alternate genera as well (if not alternate genus is mentioned, they are Trametes in the strict sense).

Preliminary, unpublished key to Trametes in Australia.
Key to informal morpho-groups:

1. Context and pores bright red or orange Group 1 [Pycnoporus]
   1: Context and pores white, buff, yellow or pink. 2

2. Lamellate or elongate-pored. Group 2 ["Lenzites"-like forms, which are not a natural group]
   2: Pored, the pores at most 3x longer than wide. 3

3. Pileus distinctly hairy, at least in some zones (handlens required, look at youngest specimens). Group 3
   3: Pileus glabrous to scrupose or granular-tuberculate (check youngest specimens). Group 4

Key to Group 1 [Pycnoporus clade]

1. Pores 1-4 per mm [usually > 5 mm thick at base]. 2
   1: Pores 4-8 per mm. 3

2. Fruitbodies small (up to 5 cm diam.), ??6-10 mm thick; pileus surface usually scrupose, dark orange- red. Rare tropical species. Trametes/Pycnoporus puniceus
   2: Fruitbodies usually larger; mosly boreotemperate; pileus surface matt, smooth, bright orange. Trametes/Pycnoporus cinnabarinus (VERY rare in Australia, known from a single specimen near Darwin)

3. Fruitbodies thin, 1-4(-5) mm thick at base, often narrowly attached to pseudo-stipitate; pileus smooth to sub-varnished, usually weakly zonate, colour not fading except in extreme age, most specimens not or scarcely faded; pantropical, strictly tropical in Australasia (not occurring in SA, NSW, VIC, TAS, southern WA, or central deserts - all records in these states are T. coccineus). Trametes/Pycnoporus sanguineus
   3: Fruitbodies thicker, usually > 5 mm thick at maturity, always broadly attached; pileus surface azonate, when fresh dull and minutely velvety, becoming smooth and sub-agglutinated in age; mostly temperate Australia and NZ, rare in tropical areas of Australia, Australasia and Oceania. 4

4. QLD, SA, NSW, VIC, TAS, southern WA, or central deserts. Extremely common except in tropical areas. Trametes/Pycnoporus coccineus
   4: Kimberley, Top End (possibly also Cape York). Very rare. 5

5. Trametes/Pycnoporus sp. Kimberley, and rare Trametes/Pycnoporus coccineus (DNA sequencing is required to be certain of identity)

Key to Group 2 [lamellate forms]

1. Elongate-poroid, labyrinthine, the elongate pores / lamellae 10-30 per cm when measured transversely; pileus ±glabrous, usually white to cream. Trametes/Artolenzites repanda
   1: Elongate pores / lamellae 5-8(10) per cm when measured transversely. 2

2. Pileus mostly pale to dark brown; context and/or hymenium often with brownish to tan colours. Trametes tenuis [=Lenzites acutus, Cellullariella acuta] [Poorly characterised in Australia, this step may not work for all forms]
   2: Pileus white to cream, or in age pale brown in centre only. 3

3. Pileus whitish with asperulate tufts of agglutinated hyphae, often in zones. Common in wet tropics, mostly in rainforest, possibly more widespread in wetter tropical areas of Australia. Trametes vespacea
   
   3: Pileus whitish aging pale brown in centre, smooth, matt, azonate. Common and widespread in, tropical and subtropical Australia. Trametes/?Cellullariella warnieri

Key to Group 3 [Pileus tomentose to hispid hairy]

1. Pores 1-3 per mm. Only known from Wet Tropics in Australia. Trametes pocas [if pileus VERY hairy, compare Funalia leonina and F. subgallica]
   1: Pores 3 or more per mm. 2

2. Hymenium becoming greyish or black with age (From Li et al 2011, need to confirm is a reliable character in Australia). Southern and eastern Australia. Trametes hirsuta
   2: Hymenium remaining pale. 3

3. Pileus distinctly coloured, with a black line between context and tomentum. Southern and eastern Australia, mostly temperate. Trametes versicolor
   3: Pileus white to ochraceous, or pale brown, without a dark line between context and tomentum. Northern and Eastern Australia, mostly tropical and subtropical. 4

4. Context pale brownish, surface ±hispid??. Trametes/Coriolopsis polyzona
   4: Context white to cream. Trametes pavonia

Key to Group 4 [Pileus ±smooth, granular, scrupose, tuberculate but not hairy]

1. Pileus 1-2 per mm. Trametes/Cubamyces lactinea
   1: Pores more than 3 per mm. 3

2. Pileus smooth or sometimes irregularly tuberculate near centre. common in tropical and subtropical Australia. Trametes/Pilatoporus muelleri/marianna [this is what has been called T. marianna in Australia, but I am uncertain whether the two species are really the same, or closely relate sister species - until resolved i prefer to use the Australian name muelleri]
   2: Pileus strongly granular over most of surface. Rare, so far only known from Wet Tropics, but may be more widespread. Trametes ?manilaensis [exact identity awaiting DNA sequence]

Posted on March 13, 2021 02:01 AM by mattbarrett