Placoasterina
Placoasterina Toro, in Chardon & Toro, J. Dept. Agric. Porto Rico 14(4): 229 (1930).
Index Fungorum number: IF 4122; Facesoffungi number: FoF 12405, 1 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2022), no molecular data available.
Epiphytes on the lower surface, forming minute blackened areas. Superficial hyphae spread on host surface, dark brown, easily removed from the host, with appressoria. Appressoria circular, lateral and alternative, sparsely septate. Sexual morph: Thyriothecia superficial, solitary and gregarious on host surface, flattened, poorly developed at the basal, opening by stellate-like fissures when mature, brown to black, hyphae with circular appressoria, opening by stellate like fissures when mature. Upper wall comprising linear cells, with irregular filiform hyphae, radiating arranged from the centre to the outer rim, branched at the margin. Hamathecium of 2 μm, pseudoparaphyses, or absent. Asci 8-spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, subglobose to oblong, apically rounded, pedicel short or absent, with an ocular chamber but sometimes absent. Ascospores 2 or 4 seriate, oblong to obovoid, uniseptate, constricted and darker at the septum, upper cells slightly longer and wider than lower cell, smooth-walled, brown. Asexual morph: Unknown (adapted from Hongsanan et al. 2014).
Type species: Placoasterina antioquensis Toro
Notes: Placoasterina is characterised by circular, lateral and alternative, sparsely septate appressoria, superficial, solitary thyriothecia, fissitunicate, subglobose to oblong asci and 2 or 4 seriate, oblong to obovoid, uniseptate ascospores. Lumbsch and Huhndorf (2010) and Kirk et al. (2013) accepted Placoasterina in Asterinaceae. Hongsanan et al. (2014) could not locate the type species, but examined a collection from IMI which was immature and reported that Placoasterina resembles members of Asterina. Wijayawardene et al. (2017, 2020) listed Placoasterina in Dothideomycetes genera incertae sedis. Molecular data is lacking. Fresh collections with DNA sequence data are needed to confirm the systematic position of Placoasterina.
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