Ophiocapnocoma phloiophilia S. Hughes

Ophiocapnocoma phloiophilia (E. E. Fisher) S. Hughes Fig. 18 Specimen examined. Usa • Oregon, Douglas Co., Creek Research Natural Area, on Calocedrus decurrens stem, 27 Oct 1997, J. Trappe, OSC 61673. Description. Subicula dark brown to black, forming spongy cushions, up to 10 mm thick and up to 75 mm in diameter (Hughes 1967). Mycelium of moniliform, anastomosing, branched hyphae with deep constrictions at septa. Hyphae tapering towards their tips; brown to dark brown when mature, finely verrucose (not illustrated). Sexual form. Perithecia superficial, scattered, subglobose and dark brown to black. Asci obclavate, 100–180 × 20–40 µm. Ascospores are ellipsoidal to fusiform, curved or straight, yellowish brown to brown, to 22 – septate, according to Hughes (1967), up to 15 septa found in OSC 61673. Asexual forms. Hormiokrypsis – Conidiophores thick, robust, darker than somatic hyphae. Conidia are porospores, arising from a pore in the thickened distal cell wall at the tip of a conidiophore (not illustrated). Hormiokrypsis porospores are multiseptate and often consist of a main axis with one or two arms. They display a wide range of sizes and shapes. Developing porospores elongate from subglobose to ellipsoid, becoming obclavate while also developing transverse septa. Mature porospores consist of an obclavate, straight main axis comprising four to nine cells, and two, septate arms that originate from the supra – basal cell of the main axis and taper towards their tips. Basal cells somewhat hemispherical, up to 25 µm wide, main axis length up to 100 µm. Lateral arms perpendicular to, and generally shorter and narrower than, the main axis. Capnophialophora – Phialides form on hyphae, on hormiokrypsis porospores and on ascospores. Host and distribution. Hughes (1967) reports this species from New Zealand, Australia, and Hawaii and western USA, growing on stems of various woody plants, often in mixtures of sooty mold species. Notes. Ophiocapnocoma phloiophilia can be distinguished by its hormiokrypsis porospores, which are unique to this species. We were unsuccessful in separating O. phloiophilia for sequencing from among other, intermingled fungi present in specimen OSC 61673, which included M. spongiosum, described above. This leaves the phylogenetic relationship between Metacapnodium and Ophiocapnocoma unresolved.