Ocala
Ocala Raja & Shearer, Fungal Diversity 34: 80 (2009).
Index Fungorum number: IF 512703; Facesoffungi number: FoF 12345, 1 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2022), 1 species with molecular data.
Saprobic on host. Sexual morph: Ascomata small, brown to dark brown, semi-transparent, superficial or immersed, scattered, globose to subglobose, membranous, ostiolate, with a short papilla. Peridium thin-walled, textura angularis to epidermoidea in surface view. Pseudoparaphyses sparse, septate. Asci fissitunicate, fasciculate, obclavate to fusoid, apex flattened, with an elongate, tapered pedicel, containing eight uniseriate to 2-seriateoverlapping ascospores. Ascospores hyaline, narrowly ellipsoidal to fusiform, phragmoseptate, thick walled, straight or slightly curved, with or without amorphous apical gelatinous appendages. Asexual morph: Unknown (adapted from Raja et al. 2009).
Type species: Ocala scalariformis Raja & Shearer
Notes: Ocala is characterised by small, brown to dark brown, semi-transparent ascomata, fasciculate, obclavate to fusoid asci and hyaline, narrowly ellipsoidal to fusiform, phragmoseptate ascospores. Ocala resembles members of Phaeosphaeriaceae in having globose to subglobose, ostiolate, perithecial ascomata with soft membranous peridium, fissitunicate asci, and septate ascospores (Barr 1979, Cannon & Kirk 2007). Ocala differs from Phaeosphaeriaceae in having broad cellular pseudo paraphyses, phragmoseptate, thick-walled hyaline ascospores with ephemeral, amorphous, bipolar gelatinous appendages (Lumbsch & Huhndorf 2010, Shearer et al. 2009). In the phylogenetic analysis of Shearer et al. (2009) based on LSU and SSU sequence data, O. scalariformis clustered basal to Jahnulales, without any statistical support and did not show strong phylogenetic affinities with any families and orders in Dothideomycetes. Raja et al. (2009) suggested the placement of Ocala in the subclass Pleosporomycetidae and the order Pleosporales based on the erumpent, globose to subglobose perithecial ostiolate ascomata, cellular pseudoparaphyses, fissitunicate asci, and hyaline or brown, septate, thin- or thick-walled ascospores (Kirk et al. 2008, Zhang et al. 2008). Lumbsch and Huhndorf (2010) accepted Ocala in Phaeosphaeriaceae. Wijayawardene et al. (2017, 2020) listed Ocala in Dothideomycetes genera incertae sedis. More collections with DNA sequence data are needed to confirm the systematic placement of Ocala. Only SSU sequence data is available for Ocala in GenBank.
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