We will present an overview of the taxonomy and distribution of the species of Pluteus in North America based on morphological studies and molecular phylogenies. A total of 120 taxa (species and varieties) of Pluteus have been described from or reported in North America, but currently only c. 40 of these species have been confirmed to occur here, based on molecular data generated from North American voucher collections. We will discuss the ongoing, collaborative projects to clarify the status of old names in the genus, and to describe a good number on new species, through a combination of morphological and molecular approaches and collaboration with citizen-scientists.

Alfredo Justo – Curator of Botany & Mycology at the New Brunswick Museum
Dr. Justo joined the Natural History Department of the New Brunswick Museum in June 2019. He oversees the curation and growth of the NBM Herbarium, which comprises over 100,000 specimens of plants, fungi, lichens, bryophytes and algae from New Brunswick and neighboring regions. His research focuses on the fungal diversity of New Brunswick & Atlantic Canada, while maintaining ongoing global taxonomic research on selected genera of mushrooms.

Dr. Justo completed his PhD in systematic mycology at the University of Vigo, Spain, in 2006. Following several years of projects in Spain related to mycological conservation and diversity, he spent six years (2009-2014) in a postdoctoral research position with Dr. David Hibbett at Clark University (Massachusetts, USA), focusing on molecular systematics of mushroom-forming fungi. Research and teaching positions followed, in Mexico, Spain, and eventually back to the USA where Dr. Justo was a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Biology Department at Worcester State University and a Visiting Scholar at Clark University.
More on Dr. Justo’s research interests & publications at https://alfredojusto.weebly.com/