Karstenia 43: 37--44, 2003 Phellodon secretus (Basidiomycota), a new hydnaceous fungus.from northern pine woodlands TUOMO NIEMELA, JUHA KJNNUNEN, PERTII RENVALL and DMITRY SCHIGEL NIEMELA, T. , KINNUNEN, J. , RENVALL, P. & SCHIGEL, D. 2003: Phellodon secretus (Basidiomycota), a new hydnaceous fungus from northern pine woodland s.- Karstenia 43: 37-44. 2003. Phellodon secretus Niemela & Kinnunen (Basidiomycota, Thelephorales) resembles Phellodon connatus (Schultz : Fr.) P. Karst., but differs in having a thinner stipe, cottony soft pileus, and smaller and more globose spores. Its ecology is peculiar: it is found in dry, old-growth pine woodlands, growing in sheltered places under strongly decayed trunks or rootstocks of pine trees, where there is a gap of only a few centim- eters between soil and wood. Basidiocarps emerge from humus as needle-like, ca. I mm thick, black stipes, and the pileus unfolds only after the stipe tip has contacted the overhanging wood. In its ecology and distribution the species resembles Hydnellum gracilipes (P. Karst.) P. Karst. It seems to be extremely rare, found in Northern boreal and Middle boreal vegetation zones, in areas with fairly continental climate. Key words: Aphyllophorales, Phellodon, hydnaceous fungi, taxonomy Tuomo Niemela, Juha Kinnunen & Dmitry Schigel, Finnish Museum of Natural His- tory, Botanical Museum, P.O. Box 7, FIN-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland Pertti Renvall, Kuopio Natural History Museum, Myhkyrinkatu 22, FIN-70100 Kuo- pio, Finland Introduction Virgin pine woodlands of northern Europe make a specific environment for fungi. The barren sandy soil, spaced stand of trees and scanty lower veg- etation result in severe drought during sunny summer months, in particular because such woo d- lands are usually situated on exposed hillsides, river banks, and tops of eskers. Pinus sylvestris grows in almost pure stands, accompanied by sin- gle Picea abies and Betula pubescens here and there. Slowly growing and straight pine trees give excellent timber, and nowadays fairly little is left intact of these handsome forests. Fungal decomposition proceeds slowly in such dry habitats, and just a few wood-rotting species can easily occupy dry coarse woody debris there. In natural conditions pine trees die of wildfires or fall down in storms, but quite a lot of them suc- ceed to reach a high age of300- 500(-800) years, eventually dying while standing. Such dead pine trees may keep standing for another 200-500 years, losing their bark and thinner branches: in this way the so-called kelo trees develop, com- mon and characteristic for northern old-growth pine woodlands. This process was described in detail by Niemela et a!. (2002), and in that paper many wood-inhabiting fungi of the kelo trees were listed. A team of mycologists from the University of Helsinki (Yu-Cheng Dai, Juha Kinnunen, Olli Manninen, Tuomo Niemela, Dmitry Schigel, Olli Turunen) has inventoried protected old forests of North and East Finland during the years 1998- 2002. These studies were initiated and organized by the local offices of the governmental Natural Heritage Services; for the background of the in- ventories in Lapland, see Niemela et al. (2003).