Two new species of Melanoleuca (Agaricales, Basidiomycota) from northeastern China, supported by morphological and molecular data

• Two new species of Melanoleuca are described from China.
• Melanoleuca leucopoda is mainly characterized by whitish stipe.
• Melanoleuca porphyropoda is mainly characterized by purplish stipe.
• The molecular data supported that the two species were distinct in Melanoleuca.
• The systematic position of the two species based on molecular data are discussed.

Two new species, Melanoleuca leucopoda and M. porphyropoda, are described based on collections made from Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, China. Melanoleuca leucopoda is mainly characterized by its whitish stipe with fibrils and oblong spores with elongated warts. Melanoleuca porphyropoda differs from all other Melanoleuca species in lacking cystidia and in having decurrent gills and a purplish stipe. The sequences of internal transcribed spacer regions (ITS1-5.8S-ITS2) of Melanoleuca species were analyzed and the results indicated that two new species clustered into two clades and differed from the other species of the genus. The combination of morphological and molecular data confirmed that the two fungi are new species. The morphological similarity of the new species to other species of Melanoleuca and the systematic position of the two species based on molecular data are also discussed.