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During ongoing studies of the mycoflora of Kerala State, India, three species of Crepidotus , namely, C. exilis A.M.Kumar & C.K.Pradeep sp. nov., C. globisporus A.M.Kumar & C.K.Pradeep sp. nov. and C. croceotinctus Peck, were discovered. These species are described and illustrated. A phylogenetic reconstruction based on maximum-likelihood analyses of nuclear ribosomal large subunit rDNA sequences are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the expectation in nineteenth-century botany that the plants of one country were most similar to those of adjacent countries, by the middle of the century it was accepted that there was a connexion between flora of northern Australia and 'India'. The pattern and reasons for plant distribution around the world were studied in the emerging science of phytogeography, but this paper suggests that the strength of the Indo-Australian connexion was influenced by species limits in the established science of phytography or descriptive botany. This paper also shows that while the botany of Australia and 'India' was predominantly studied in European nations, Ferdinand Mueller used resources obtained from Joseph Hooker in Great Britain, and Friedrich Miquel in the Netherlands to add new details to the distribution pattern of 'Indian' plants in northern Australia. Although Mueller was unwilling to reflect on these findings himself, they seemed to challenge attempts to introduce evolutionary and geological explanations into phytogeography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]