Plowrightia
Plowrightia Sacc., Syll. fung. (Abellini) 2: 635 (1883).
Index Fungorum number: IF 4262; Facesoffungi number: FoF 00088, 17 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2022), 2 species with molecular data.
Parasitic or saprobic on leaves, twigs and wood in terrestrial habitats. Sexual morph: Ascostromata dark brown to black, immersed, becoming erumpent through the epidermis, solitary or scattered, pulvinate, subglobose to globose, coriaceous, multiloculate, with 2 to many locules, cells of ascostromata composed of several layers of dark brown cells of textura angularis. Locules subglobose to globose, thick-walled. Peridium of locules comprising several layers of dark brown cells of textura angularis or prismatica, vertical to the host surface. Hamathecium lacking pseudoparaphyses. Asci 8-spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, cylindrical, elongate to ellipsoid, pedicellate, rounded at the apex. Ascospores overlapping, biseriate, hyaline, uniseptate, slightly constricted at septum, fusiform, subglobose to globose, tapering towards both ends, smooth-walled. Asexual morph: see notes (adapted from Thambugala et al. 2014).
Type species: Plowrightia ribesia (Pers.) Sacc.
Notes: Plowrightia is characterised by dark brown to black, immersed ascostromata, 8-spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, cylindrical, elongate to ellipsoid asci and hyaline,uniseptate, subglobose to globose ascospores. Barr (1972) synonymized Plowrightia with Dothiora, but Arx and Müller (1975) and Barr (1987) re-established it in Dothideaceae based on morphology especially pulvinate, erumpent ascostromata comprising several small locules. Hawksworth et al. (1995) and Lumbsch and Huhndorf (2010) did not agree with Barr (1972) and included Plowrightia in Dothioraceae. Winton et al. (2007) confirmed the placement of Plowrightia in Dothioraceae based on phylogenetic analysis and reported that Plowrightia abietis is morphologically the same as Phaeocryptopus nudus and Rhizosphaera oudemansii. Winton et al. (2007) also mentioned that Plowrightia produces a hormonema-like asexual states in culture and treated it in Venturiaceae, though it grouped in Capnodiales. Thambugala et al. (2014) observed the type specimen of P. nudus and P. abietis and reported that they might not be similar. Thambugala et al. (2014) also reported that Plowrightia abietis and R. oudemansii are identical and the latter is the asexual state of P. abietis as Phaeocryptopus nudus and R. oudemansii cluster in a sister clade in Dothideaceae while Plowrightia clustered with R. oudemansii in their phylogeny. Molecular data is lacking for the type species of Rhizosphaera hence fresh collections are needed to confirm the relationship of Rhizosphaera with Plowrightia. Molecular data available for Plowrightia are LSU, SSU and ITS.
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