The Genus (Syn. ) Reinstated and Species Clarification of the Cultivated Medicinal Mushroom "Fuling" in China

The fungus "Fuling" has been used in Chinese traditional medicine for more than 2000 years, and its sclerotia have a wide range of biological activities including antitumour, immunomodulation, anti-inflammation, antioxidation, anti-aging etc. This prized medicinal mushroom also known as "Hoelen" is resurrected from a piece of pre-Linnean scientific literature. Fries treated it as Fr. and mentioned that it was cultivated on pine trees in China. However, this name had been almost forgotten, and (syn. ), originally described from North America, and known as "Tuckahoe" has been applied to "Fuling" in most publications. Although Merrill mentioned a 100 years ago that Asian and North American are similar but different, no comprehensive taxonomical studies have been carried out on the East Asian and its related species. Based on phylogenetic analyses and morphological examination on both the sclerotia and the basidiocarps which are very seldomly developed, the East Asian samples of including sclerotia, commercial strains for cultivation and fruiting bodies, nested in a strongly supported, homogeneous lineage which clearly separated from the lineages of North American and other species. So we confirm that the widely cultivated "Fuling" in East Asia is not conspecific with the North American . Based on the changes in Art. 59 of the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants, the generic name , which was sanctioned by Fries, has nomenclatural priority (ICN, Art. F.3.1), and this name well represents the economically important stage of the generic type. So we propose to use rather than , and subsequently and are the valid names for "Fuling" in East Asia and "Tuckahoe" in North America, respectively. In addition, a new combination, , is proposed. Furthermore, it seems that is a species complex, and that three species exist in North America.