Morphological and molecular evidence for a new species of Russula subgen. Compactae from Pakistan

A new species of Russula has been collected from Punjab and Khyber pakhtunkhwa provinces, Pakistan. Russula punjabensis sp. nov. is characterized by grayish purple to grayish red pileus with brittle central region, white lamellae with brown striations, becoming brown at maturity, a rhizoidal base, small (7.48 × 6.64 µm) subglobose to broadly ellipsoid basidiospores as compared to R. acrifolia (7.7 µm), small (34.80 × 4.35 µm) cylindrical to narrowly fusiform pileocystidia and presence of clamp connections in pileipellis. Phylogenetic analysis based on nuclear ribosomal ITS & LSU nucleotide sequences confirm its novelty.