Multifurca (Russulales), a genus new to China

The genus Multifurca was newly established to accommodate a phylogenetic clade based on Russula subsect. Ochricompactae. Two species of the genus, M. furcata and M. zonaria, which were originally described from United States and Thailand respectively, were found to exist in subtropical-tropical China. Morphological analysis showed that the Chinese collections named as M. furcata meet all of the key characters of M. furcata, which circumscribed an Asia-American distribution pattern of M. furcata. Compared with Thai material of M. zonaria, more differentiated pileipellis and presence of hymenial macrocystidia were found in the Chinese specimens. This report broadens our under-standing on the morphology, geographic distribution, and habitat of the two species, as well as the whole genus.