Mycological surveys reveal two new species of genus Lepiota (Agaricaceae) from the semi-arid climatic region of Punjab, Pakistan.

During our studies on the genus Lepiota in Pakistan, we collected two putatively new species from Punjab Province, with distinct morphology, ITS, and 28S of nrDNA profile. L. aurantiopilea is featured by orange to yellow-orange pileus with a reddish-brown umbo, tiny granules on the surface that are concolorous to pileus, absence of annulus, subglobose to oblong, ellipsoid or spurred basidiospores, clavate fusoid-ventricose, utriform cheilocystidia and hymeniderm made up clavate to subfusiform elements. Another new species, L. bahawalnagarensis has a light grayish-brown pileus with dark grayish-brown reddish-brown umbo, grayish-yellow brown zonation on the surface, pale yellow stipe, single-edged annulus, ellipsoid basidiospores, versiform cheilocystidia, hymeniderm pileipellis, and clavate to utriform caulocystidia. Photographs of fresh basidiomata, descriptions, and line drawings of key microscopic features are provided. Morphological characters and phylogenetic trees inferred from nrITS and 28S of nrDNA sequences show that both of our new species clustered within section Liliaceae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]