Stachybotryaceae L. Lombard & Crous, Persoonia 32: 283 (2014)
MycoBank number: MB 90922; Index Fungorum number: IF 90922; Facesoffungi number: FoF 05320; 304 species.
Saprobic or pathogenic on plants and commonly isolated from soil. Sexual morph: Ascomata superficial or immersed, solitary or scattered, sometimes fused, globose to subglobose, bright to dark yellow or black, sometimes covered with intertwined hyphae. Papilla central, short, black, without periphyses. Ostiole conical, thin, black. Peridium composed of several layers of dark brown, thin-walled cells of textura angularis (Stachybotrys), or textura intricata (Scopinella), or outwardly composed of thick-walled textura angularis and inwardly with textura prismatica (Peethambara). Paraphyses moniliform or filiform, hyaline, septate or aseptate, intermingled with asci. Asci 4–8-spored, unitunicate, clavate to cylindrical, apex rounded to nearly truncate, deliquescent at maturity, lacking an apical ring. Ascospores 2–3-seriate, hyaline or brown to dark brown, ellipsoidal to fusiform or broadly reniform, 0–1-septate, with or lacking a mucilaginous sheath. Asexual morph: Hyphomycetous. Conidiophores single, sporodochial or synnematous, if conidiophore single, macronematous, mononematous, solitary or gregarious, simple or irregularly branched, hyaline or pale brown, smooth-walled; if conidiophores sporodochial or synnematous, pulvinate, gelatinous, hyaline to dark green, with or without setae, with irregularly penicillate, bi- or triverticillately branched conidiogenous ring. Conidiogenous cells enteroblastic, monophialidic to polyphialidic, discrete, cylindrical, ellipsoidal or clavate to broadly reniform, with conspicuous collarettes, determinate or proliferating percurrently, initially hyaline becoming pale brown at maturity. Conidia arising from the apices of the phialides, elongate, cylindrical, fusiform or ellipsoidal, 0–3-septate, smooth-walled, smooth, striate or roughened, hyaline, brown to dark brown, aggregated in slimy, dark green to black masses (adapted from Maharachchikumbura et al. 2016b).
Type genus – Stachybotrys Corda
Notes – Stachybotryaceae was established by Crous et al. (2014a) to accommodate Myrothecium, Peethamabra and Stachybotrys. This family is characterized by asexual morphs having mononematous, sporodochial or synnematous conidiophores and phialidic conidiogenous cells that produce conidia in chains or in slimy or dry masses (Seifert et al. 2011, Crous et al. 2014a, Wang et al. 2015b, Lombard et al. 2016). Lombard et al. (2016) monographed the family based on morphology and LSU, ITS, rpb2, cmdA, tef1 and tub2 sequence data and 33 genera were accepted. Wijayawardene et al. (2018a) accepted 36 genera, however the family seems to be split into rather numerous genera based on few distinguishing characters and poor phylogenetic resolution.
Genera