Three new species and one new record of Scleroderma (Sclerodermataceae, Boletales) from northern Thailand

The genus Scleroderma (Sclerodermataceae) contains gasteroid ectomycorrhizal fungi and is distributed worldwide in temperate and tropical regions. Fresh specimens were collected in Thailand and report three undescribed species and one new record for the country. These species were characterized by photographs of freshly collected basidiomes, and their macro- and microscopic features were compared with those of known species of Scleroderma.

Additionally, DNA sequence data were generated for four loci, including the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer region (ITS), the large subunit ribosomal RNA gene (LSU), the translation elongation factor 1 - alpha gene (tef 1 - α), and the second largest subunit of RNA polymerase II (rpb 2). A multi-locus phylogeny was constructed to confirm their taxonomic placement.