Symphaeophyma
Symphaeophyma Speg., Anal. Mus. nac. Hist. nat. B. Aires 23: 97 (1912).
Index Fungorum number: IF 5316; Facesoffungi number: FoF 02339, 1 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2022), no molecular data available.
Parasitic on lower side of the leaf and surrounded by sparse radiating superficial mycelium, sometimes associated with dark purplish pigmentation. Mycelium: External hyphae spreading out from ascomata border, sparse, brown, septate, straight or slightly sinuous, smooth with long and short dichotomous acute branches. Internal hyphae: not seen, globose, subglobose or elliptical, colorless, intracellular, coralloid haustoria formed below the internal stroma. Stroma subcuticular, brown to black, sometimes extensively penetrating the epidermis, forming a compact layer of predominantly brown walled angular cells, gradually becoming olive or paler and eventually colorless in the lower part. In horizontal section: similar to the edge of the ascomatal upper wall, composed of cells with brown walls forming a textura angularis. Sexual morph: Ascomata appearing at the same time as or possibly before the conidiomata often occupying the same loci. External appearance, variable in shape, brown to black, shiny to matt, initially circular, often becoming elliptical or irregular in form, sometimes confluent, opening by irregular or radiating fissures. In horizontal section: with an upper wall composed of cells with dark brown walls forming a textura prismatica. In vertical section: composed of separate blackened upper and lower walls enclosing a central fertile locule. Upper wall: dense, composed of brown-walled cells forming a textura angularis. Lower wall: composed of cells with light to olive brown walls forming a poorly defined textura angularis. Locule composed of a thin basal cushion intermingled with the lower wall with asci and interthecial filaments above immersed in a gelatinous layer. Maturing sequentially with young and old asci in same locule. Young asci variable in shape, cylindric-clavate to clavate or sometimes broadly clavate at first thin-walled, later thick walled especially in upper part with a subapical chamber before spores are visible. Full sized asci containing colorless spores clavate, or broadly clavate, thick-walled, especially in upper part, not changing color in IKI, with 6 or 8 spores arranged in one, two rows or in a cluster. Asci after spore release, collapsed with a large apical crack in the outer wall and the inner layer extending like a tongue through the crack. Ascospores, colorless, guttulate with a gelatinous sheath becoming light brown to brown, verrucose when pigmented, 1-septate, cylindric-ellipsoidal to ellipsoidal, narrowed at the septum, the lower cell slightly attenuated, the upper cells bigger, domed at the apex. Interthecial filaments mostly colorless and smooth but sometimes with an olive-to-olive brown gelatinous layer with dark brown external material adhering to the tips, septate, thin-walled the upper half verrucose, filiform but rounded and slightly swollen at the tips, sometimes dichotomously branched in the upper part, the branches arising at an acute angle from the middle or near the top of individual cells. Asexual morph: Coelomycetous. Habit: separate from ascomata, but often lateral to the ascoma wall and apparently linked to the same internal stroma. External appearance: difficult to distinguish from the teleomorph. In vertical section: erumpent with a dense layer of conidiogenous cells breaking through the cuticle, forming a cavity. Conidiogenous cells, short, forming a compact layer, difficult to distinguish alone, colorless, septate, smooth. Conidia not seen. Conidial development not observed (adapted from Inácio & Cannon 2008).
Type species: Symphaeophyma subtropicale Speg.
Notes: Symphaeophyma is characterised by superficial ascomata with peg-like structures, sinuate, black ascostromata with thick internal part (Inácio & Cannon 2008). Symphaeophyma morphologically resembles Parmularia but the latter does not have a well-developed extensive internal stroma and its ascomata are flat and not pulvinate. Symphaeophyma also resembles Viegasella in having similar coralloid haustoria but differs in the anatomy of internal stroma. Viegasella has rather flat ascomata and lacks superficial mycelium (Inácio & Cannon 2003). The unique and distinct character of Symphaeophyma is the superficial pulvinate ascomata with hyphal strands spreading out from the ascomata border linked to the host through dark peg-like stromatic columns and a large subcuticular dark internal stroma (Inácio & Cannon 2008). Molecular data is lacking. Fresh collections with DNA sequence data are needed to confirm the taxonomic placement of Symphaeophyma.
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