Patellariales » Patellariaceae

Murangium

Murangium Seaver, North American Cup-fungi, (Inoperculates) (New York): 367 (1951).

Index Fungorum number: IF 3289; Facesoffungi number: FoF 00357, 1 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2022), no molecular data available.

Saprobic on bark. Sexual morph: Ascomata apothecial, aggregated in small groups, superficial, mostly in linear, some solitary, closed when young, opened as inverted cone to deep cup, with an exposed hymenium at maturity, folded at the rim, thick, slightly raised over the centre with lobes, irregular, black. Exciple composed of 2 layers, outer layer pseudoparenchymatous, black, inner layer comprised with textura globulosa to textura angularis. Hamathecium composed of 1.5–2 µm wide, filamentous, septate, branched, pseudoparaphyses, rounded at the apex, anastomosed to form a dark epithecium over the asci, turning dark of greenblue in 5% KOH solution. Asci 8-spored, bitunicate, clavate to broadly, indistinctly apically domed, narrow and short at the base. Ascospores 2-seriate overlapping, ellipsoid to obovoid, oblong, rounded at the ends, with 4–7-transverse and 1–2-longitudinal septa, slightly constricted at the central septa, hyaline when immature, brown when mature. Asexual morph: Unknown (adapted from Yacharoen et al. 2015).

 Type species: Murangium sequoiae (Plowr.) Seaver

Notes: Murangium is characterised by apothecial ascomata, clavate to broadly, indistinctly apically domed asci and ellipsoid to obovoid, oblong ascospores with 4–7-transverse and 1–2-longitudinal septa. Seaver (1951) placed Murangium in Cenangiaceae based on its morphological similarity with Cenangium such as apothecial ascomata, with an irregular aperture, bitunicate asci and muriform ascospores. Korf and Zhuang (1987) highlighted the fissitunicate nature of the asci. Eriksson (1982) reported that the cup-shaped, apothecial ascomata and bitunicate, fissitunicate asci resemble those of members in Patellariaceae. Bonar (1942) failed to induce the asexual morph of M. sequoiae on sterilized twigs of Sequoia in culture. Yacharoen et al. (2015) examined a specimen of M. sequoia (NY, n.P. v1.23.33) and accepted Murangium in Patellariaceae based on morphology. Murangium is currently a distinct genus in Patellariaceae but DNA sequence data is needed to confirm this taxonomic placement.

 

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