Phyllobathelium
Phyllobathelium (Müll. Arg.) Müll. Arg., Flora, Regensburg 73: 195 (1890).
≡ Bathelium sect. Phyllobathelium Müll. Arg., Flora, Regensburg 66(22): 347 (1883).
Index Fungorum number: IF 4057; Facesoffungi number: FoF 08877, 5 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2022), 1 species with molecular data.
Lichenized on leaves or rarely on bark in terrestrial, lowland to lower montane tropical to subtropical forests. Sexual morph: Thallus corticate, grey-green with characteristic metallic appearance, often minutely verrucose. Photobiont Trentepohlia. Ascomata perithecia, scattered, prominent to sessile, wart-shaped but often irregularly bumpy, immersed in pseudostromata covered by thallus layer and usually filled with a mass of black, powdery crystals, ostiolate. Involucrellum reduced. Excipulum prosoplectenchymatous, colourless. Hamathecium hyaline, fexuose, unbranched to sparsely branched. Asci 8-spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, broadly cylindrical, shortly pedicellate, with broad ocular chamber, non-amyloid. Ascospores irregularly arranged to uni- or 2-seriate, fusiform to ellipsoid, hyaline, muriform, with thin eusepta and rectangular lumina, smooth-walled, often constricted at the septa. Asexual morph: Pycnidia common, immersed in slightly raised, applanate to conical pseudostromata filled with black, powdery crystals, visible as brown to black dots, often whole thalli only producing pycnidia. Conidia acrogenous, only macroconidia known; macroconidia septate to muriform, ellipsoid to bacillar, with more or less ciliate but rather thick gelatinous appendages, hyaline. Chemistry: Unidentified black, powdery crystals in ascomata warts and pycnidial pseudostromata (adapted from Hongsanan et al. 2020b).
Type species: Phyllobathelium epiphyllum (Müll. Arg.) Müll. Arg.
Notes: Phyllobathelium is characterised by corticate, grey-green thallus, scattered, prominent to sessile ascomata, prosoplectenchymatous exciple, broadly cylindrical asci and fusiform to ellipsoid, hyaline, muriform ascospores. The asexual morph is characterised by applanate to conical pseudostromata filled with black crystals and acrogenous conidia. Harris (1995) transferred P. albolinitum and P. obtectum to Strigula. Lücking and Sérusiaux (2013) identified Phyllobathelium nudum as a second species. Phyllobathelium epiphyllum and P. epiphyllum are synonyms of P. firmum and P. thaxteri, P. thaxteri var. heterogena and P. megapotamicum were synonymized with P. chlorogastricum (Lücking 2008, Aptroot & Lücking 2016). Currently five species are accepted in Phyllobathelium (Hongsanan et al. 2020b). Phyllobathelium chlorogastricum has the largest macroconidia among all taxa in Phyllobathelium (Lücking 2008, Hongsanan et al. 2020b). Phyllobathelium is easily recognized from other similar genera by its comparatively large thalli with metallic appearance. Phyllobathelium is a distinct genus in Strigulaceae. More taxa with DNA sequence data will help to establish a stable phylogeny of the genus and understand its diversity and taxonomic relationship with other genera in Strigulaceae. Molecular markers available for Phyllobathelium are LSU, SSU, RPB2, TEF-1 and mtSSU.
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