Pleosporales - CBS - KNAW

Fungal Diversity
pedicel which is up to 45 μm long, and a low ocular chamber
(ca. 2μm wide×1 μm high) (Fig. 39d, e and f). Ascospores
15–18×5.5–6.5 μm (x ¼ 16:3 5:8mm, n=10), biseriate,
narrowly ovoid to clavate, pale brown, 3-distoseptate, without
constriction, smooth-walled (Fig. 39g, h and i).
Anamorph: none reported.
Material examined: BELGIUM, Dolembreux, on branchlets
and pieces of stumps of Sarothamnus scoparius from
woodland, Oct. 1922, V. Mouton (BR 101525–63, holotype).
Notes
Morphology
Kalmusia was formally established by von Niessl (1872),
and is mainly characterized as “immersed, sphaeroid ascoma
with central, stout papilla, surrounded by hyphae in the
substrate, stipitate asci with septate pseudoparaphyses, and
brown, 3-septate, inequilateral ascospores” (Barr 1992a).
The most morphologically comparable genus to Kalmusia
is Thyridaria, which had been treated as a subgenus
under Kalmusia (Lindau 1897), and was subsequently
transferred to Platystomaceae in Melanommatales (Barr
1987b, 1990a). Compared to Thyridaria, Kalmusia has
sphaeroid ascomata, a peridium of small pseudoparenchymatous
cells, basal asci and very thin pseudoparaphyses,
thus it was assigned to Phaeosphaeriaceae of the Pleosporales
by Barr (1990a), and the genus is utilized to
accommodate both K. ebuli and K. clivensis (Berk. &
Broome) M.E. Barr, as well as closely related species, i.e.
K. utahensis (Ellis & Everh.) Huhndorf & M.E. Barr and K.
coniothyrium (Fuckel) Huhndorf (Barr 1992a). But this
proposal is questionable, as the clavate, distoseptate ascospores,
as well as the clavate asci with very long pedicels are
uncommon in Phaeosphaeriaceae, and most recent phylogenetic
study indicated that some species of Kalmusia reside
outside of Phaeosphaeriaceae (Zhang et al. 2009a).
Phylogenetic study
Both Kalmusia scabrispora Teng Kaz. Tanaka, Y.
Harada & M.E. Barr and K. brevispora (Nagas. & Y.
Otani) Yin. Zhang, Kaz. Tanaka & C.L. Schoch reside in
the clade of Montagnulaceae (Zhang et al. 2009a). Familial
placement of Kalmusia can only be verified after the DNA
sequences of the generic type (K. ebuli) are obtained.
Concluding remarks
Kalmusia is distinct amongst the Pleosporales as it has
pale brown ascospores with indistinct distosepta and clavate
asci with long pedicels. Although both K. scabrispora and
K. brevispora reside in the clade of Montagnulaceae, they
both lack the distoseptate ascospores that are possessed by
the generic type (K. ebuli). Thus, the familial placement of
Kalmusia is still undetermined.
Karstenula Speg., Decades Mycologicae Italicae ad no. 94
(in sched.) (1879). (Montagnulaceae)
Generic description
Habitat terrestrial, saprobic. Ascomata rarely small-,
usually medium-sized, immersed usually under thin
clypeus, scattered to gregarious, with flattened top and
rounded pore-like ostiole, coriaceous. Peridium 2-layered,
outer layer composed of reddish brown to dark brown
small cells, inner layer of pale compressed cells. Hamathecium
of dense, cellular pseudoparaphyses. Asci cylindrical
to cylindro-clavate with short furcate pedicel.
Ascospores muriform, ellipsoid to fusoid, reddish brown
to dark brown.
Anamorphs reported for the genus: Microdiplodia
(Constantinescu 1993).
Literature: Barr 1990a; Eriksson and Hawksworth 1991;
Kodsueb et al. 2006a; Munk 1957; Zhang et al. 2009a.
Type species
Karstenula rhodostoma (Alb. & Schwein.) Speg., Decades
Mycologicae Italicae no. 94. (1879). (Fig. 40)
≡ Sphaeria rhodostoma Alb. & Schwein., Consp. fung.
(Leipzig): 43 (1805).
Ascomata 250–430 μm high×450–650 μm diam., scattered
or gregarious, immersed in the subiculum which sometimes
sloths off, globose or subglobose, black, flattened top often
white or reddish and sometimes slightly protruding out of the
substrate surface, usually with a wide opening ostiole after
removing the cover, coriaceous (Fig. 40a and b). Peridium
30–40 μm wide, comprising two cell types, outer region 1-
layered, composed of relatively small heavily pigmented
thick-walled compressed cells, cells 2–4×5–10 μm diam.,
cell wall 2–4 μm thick, inner layer cells larger and wall
thinner, comprising cells of textura angularis, merging with
pseudoparaphyses (Fig. 40c and d). Hamathecium of dense,
long cellular pseudoparaphyses 2–3.5 μm broad, septate,
branching or anastomosing not observed. Asci 150–210×
12.5–15 μm (x ¼ 182 13:1mm, n=10), 8-spored, bitunicate,
fissitunicate, cylindrical, with a broad, furcate pedicel which is
12–35 μm long, and with an ocular chamber (to 4 μm wide×
3 μm high) (Fig. 40e and f). Ascospores 20–26×7.5–10 μm
(x ¼ 22:4 8mm, n=10), obliquely uniseriate and partially
overlapping, ellipsoid, reddish brown, with 3 transverse septa
and a vertical septum in one or two central cells, constricted at
the septa, verruculose (Fig. 40g, h and i).
Anamorph: Microdiplodia frangulae Allesch. (Constantinescu
1993).
Conidiomata globose to subglobose, 330–495 μm diam.,
in subiculum. Conidia 9–13×4–5 μm, reddish brown, 1-
septate (information obtained from Barr 1990a).