Strigulales » Strigulaceae

Phyllocharis

Phyllocharis Fée, Essai Crypt Écorc. 1: LIX, XCIV, XCIX (1825).

Index Fungorum number: IF 4062; Facesoffungi number: FoF 08878, 1 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2022), no molecular data available

Lichenized on leaves in terrestrial, lowland to montane, tropical to subtropical habitats. Thallus (pseudo-)corticate, pale grey-green, usually subcuticular and sometimes damaging the supporting leaf. Photobiont Cephaleuros. Sexual morph: Ascomata perithecia, prominent, black but largely covered by thallus layer, wart-shaped, carbonaceous, ostiolate. Involucrellum present, weakly carbonized. Excipulum prosoplectenchymatous, brownish. Hamathecium comprising hyaline, fexuose, unbranched. Asci 8-spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, obclavate to fusiform, shortly pedicellate, with narrow ocular chamber, non-amyloid. Ascospores irregularly arranged to biseriate, oblong, hyaline, 3-septate, with thin eusepta and rectangular lumina, smooth-walled. Asexual morph: Pycnidia common, immersed to erumpent, visible as black dots. Conidia acrogenous, either macro- or microconidia; macroconidia 3–9-septate, long-filiform, with gelatinous appendages, hyaline; microconidia aseptate, fusiform, small, hyaline. Chemistry: No secondary substances known (adapted from Hongsanan et al. 2020b).

Type species: Phyllocharis orbicularis (Fr.) S.H. Jiang, Lücking & Sérus.

Notes: Phyllocharis is characterised by prominent, black ascomata, fissitunicate, obclavate to fusiform asci and oblong, hyaline, 3-septate ascospores. Phyllocharis differs from Strigula in having 3-septate ascospores and long-filiform macroconidia (Jiang et al. 2020b). Hongsanan et al. (2020b) resurrected Phyllocharis. Phyllocharis Fée has a later homonym, Phyllocharis Diels, a plant genus in Lobeliaceae. van den Brink et al. (1961) proposed to conserve Phyllocharis Diels, but his proposal was rejected hence, the use of the name Phyllocharis Fée is valid. Krishnamurthy and Subramanya (2016) wrongly provided an ITS sequence for S. orbicularis (GenBank accession KU509981) based on a specimen from India but this sequence was a contaminant of Aspergillus. Hongsanan et al. (2020b) predicted that S. orbicularis will cluster with Flavobathelium, Phyllobathelium, and Swinscowia based on the ascospore and macroconidial features. Hongsanan et al. (2020b) provided the combination Phyllocharis orbicularis for the basionym Strigula orbicularis. Phyllocharis is currently a distinct genus in Strigulaceae but needs epitypification. We illustrate a specimen of Strigula orbicularis (= Phyllocharis orbicularis) to exemplify Phyllocharis.

 

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