Phylogenetic relationships of Korean Sparassis latifolia based on morphological and ITS rDNA characteristics.

Recent studies based on morphological characteristics and molecular analyses have revealed that the characteristics of Sparassis crispa from Asia are not concordant with those of collections from Europe and North America. Consequently, the Asian isolate was redefined as Sparassis latifolia. This study is the first report of Sparassis latifolia collected in Korea. The taxonomic relationships and replacement of Sparassis species were inferred from a comparison of the morphological characteristics and by molecular sequence analysis of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) rDNA regions. In particular, this study focused on the phylogenetic relationships inferred from the biogeographical distribution of isolates within the genus Sparassis.