The class Dacrymycetes is a rather small group of brown-rot wood-decaying jelly fungi characterised by forked basidia and an orange to yellow gelatinous to cartilaginous fruit body. In Japan, dacrymycetous fungi had not been investigated for a long time, justifying a taxonomic re-examination. In the present study we attempted an investigation of the dacrymycetous fungal flora of Japan, and recognised 28 taxonomic entities, including five new taxa, i.e. Dacrymyces ancyleus, D. aureosporus, D. pinacearum, D. subarcticus and Dacryopinax sphenocarpa, and nine new records. Due to the present survey, the total number of dacrymycetous species recorded from Japan increased from 28 to 42. Of the newly described species, Dacrymyces ancyleus is characterised by recurved, cylindrical basidiocarps and hyphae with clamp connections. Dacrymyces aureosporus resembles D. chrysospermus, but differs in wall thickness of its marginal hyphae. Dacrymyces pinacearum and D. subarcticus represent new coelomycetous anamorphic species. Dacryopinax sphenocarpa has sharp, spathulate basidiocarps, and hyphae with clamp connections. Descriptions, illustrations and photographs of fruit bodies are presented with some taxonomic notes. Molecular phylogenetic analyses were conducted to verify the species identification, and the remaining problems in Dacrymycetes taxonomy are discussed based on these data.

We analyzed the DNA sequences of four gene regions, 28S and 18S rDNA, the ITS region and rpb2, to obtain a high resolution phylogenetic tree of Dacrymycetes. In addition, we comparatively studied micro- and macromorphological characteristics of representative species. The traditional generic classification based on morphological characteristics was not reflected by our molecular phylogenies. Ancestral state reconstructions indicated that the morphology of basidia and clamp connections are evolutionarily stable. In contrast, basidiocarps and basidiospore septation patterns appear variable. Dacrymyces unisporus shares the dolipores with non-perforate parenthesomes typical of other dacrymycetous taxa but is a unique species having predominantly non-bifurcate basidia and subglobose to ovoid basidiospores with transverse and longitudinal septa. In molecular phylogenies this species is a member of Dacrymycetes but always occupies a sister position in relation to the rest of the Dacrymycetes. Based on our results we propose a new genus, Unilacryma, for D. unisporus. For proper accommodation of this taxon, we introduce the family Unilacrymaceae and the order Unilacrymales.

Summary• Spatial distribution and biomass of genets of sporocarps and ectomycorrhizas of Suillus pictus were studied in a plot of 20 × 24 m established in a Pinus pentaphylla var. himekomatsu plantation.• The biomass of S. pictus ectomycorrhizas was evaluated based on morphotypes, and genets were identified based on the inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) polymorphism analysis.• Suillus pictus was one of the dominant ectomycorrhizal fungal species in both the sporocarp and ectomycorrhizal communities in the study plot. Four genets were identified from sporocarps and these coincided with those identified from ectomycorrhizas. Sporocarps of each S. pictus genet occurred separately from those of other genets. Spatial distributions of ectomycorrhizas of each genet were wider than those of sporocarps. The largest genet occupied c . 54% of the plot, and the area of each genet differed considerably.• Vegetative growth of mycelia is assumed to play a more important role in the propagation of S. pictus than colonization from spores because expansions of all the four genets ranged from 25 to 30 m and no small genets were found in this plot.

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