Acanthostigma perpusillum
Acanthostigma perpusillum De Not., Hedwigia 4: 28 (1865)
Index Fungorum number: IF 204820; Facesoffungi number: FoF xx Fig. *****
Description: See Boonmee et al. (2011)
Material examined: (redrawn from Réblová and Barr 2000)
Importance and role
Importance of genus to ecosystem
Acanthostigma comprises of saprobic species and are decomposers of coarse organic material in the ecosystem.
Industrial relevance and applications
There are currently no industrial applications of Acanthostigma.
Quarantine significance
No disease has been reported from Acanthostigma.
Biochemical importance of the genus, chemical diversity or applications
The biochemical status of Acanthostigma is unknown.
Diversity of the genus
Acanthostigma comprises forty-one morphological species. There are ninety-one Acanthostigma epithets in Index Fungorum (2021) and seventy-six in Species Fungorum (2020), but, the accurate number of known Acanthostigma seem to be less, as some have been synonymised and others transferred to other genera such as Acanthophiobolus, Acanthostigmella, Acerbiella, Aphanostigme, Bryosphaeria, Cercophora, Chaetosphaeria, Chaetothyrium, Epibryon, Knufia, Nematostoma, Neoacanthostigma and Niesslia. There are around 42 sequences of Acanthostigma in GenBank. Of these, 1 species is confirmed with molecular data (A. chiangmaiensis). Lu et al. (2018b) accepted seven species of Acanthostigma viz. A. chiangmaiensise, A. ellisii, A. longisporum, A. minutum, A. patagonicum and A. perpusillum.
The species are known from two host plants namely Nothofagus alpine and Rhododendron ferrugineum and two plant families Nothofagaceae and Ericaceae. Acanthostigma is reported from United States and Thailand. Future studies are likely to discover more species of Acanthostigma but sequence data is needed because taxa in Acanthostigma can easily be confused with similar genera mentioned above.
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