First record of Penicilliopsis clavariiformis Solms. on seeds of Diospyros ferrea (Willd.) Bakh. from the Northern Western Ghats, India

Penicilliopsis clavariiformis Solms. is a rare filamentous fungus previously reported from various woody substrates and decaying plant matter. In this study, we report the first time host association of P. clavariiformis on seeds of Diospyros ferrea (Willd.) Bakh., collected from the Manoli Reserve Forest in the Northern Western Ghats, India. The fungus was isolated using standard seed mycobiota screening methods and identified based on both morphological features such as distinctive clavarioid ascomata, septate conidiophores, and cyanophilic conidia and molecular characterization of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) rDNA region. The ITS sequence showed > 99% similarity with authenticated P. clavariiformis sequences in GenBank. This is the first confirmed report of P. clavariiformis from seeds of Diospyros ferrea, expanding its known ecological and substrate range. The finding highlights the underexplored fungal diversity associated with forest seeds and emphasizes the need for targeted mycological surveys in biodiversity hotspots like the Western Ghats. Our results contribute to the growing knowledge of seed-associated fungi and provide a baseline for future ecological and pathological investigations involving this species.