Notes on the morels of South America with comments on their anamorphs

Abstract The occurrence and distribution of morels in Nothofagaceae forests of South America is addressed based on our field studies in Southern Chile and Argentina. Both ascomata and mitosporic colonies were collected and ascomata were procured from commercial harvesters. A four-gene (ITS, RPB1, RPB2, TEF1-α) and ITS phylogeny assigned these Morchella ascomatal and mitosporic collections to four Elata clade lineages, M. tridentina, M. eximia, M. andinensis and M. aysenina, which were each well supported by ML and Bayesian analyses. The placement of our collections of the two lineages unique to South America, M. andinensis (previously cited as Mel-37) and M. aysenina expand their known distribution in South America. Most of the mitosporic colonies collected in our study belong to the M. eximia “fire adapted lineage.” This is the first report of M. eximia, under this name, in Chile. Since the mitosporic colonies can be found frequently, these collections help to expand the geographical range of currently described species.