Aenigmatomyces R.F. Castañeda & W.B. Kendr., Mycologia 85(6): 1023 (1994) [1993]
Index Fungorum Number: IF 13293; Mycobank Number: MB 13293; Facesoffungi Number: FoF 15878
Etymology – Aenigmatos (genitive) = riddle; mykes = a fungus.
Hyphae septate (exclusion septa), branched, scanty, superficial, fungicolous, creeping, adherent, thin-walled, smooth-walled, colorless, hygroscopic. Sporophores differentiated, upright or ascending, flexuous, fertile distal region closely septate, usually unbranched (rarely branched), smooth-walled, colorless. Sporogenous cells monoblastic, numerous, intercalary and terminal, in a linear sequence, occupying approximately the upper two-thirds of the sporophore axis; cells barrel-shaped or short-cylindrical, each giving rise to one lateral outgrowth, several times longer than the width of the sporogenous cell, finely tapering, needle-like and rigid, with an apical conidiogenous locus. Spores solitary, ampulliform, smooth-walled and colorless; remarkably uniform in size, and exhibiting three major diagnostic features: I) an apical beak with a sharply-pointed tip, 2) a narrow isthmus about one-third of the way down the spore, 3) a broader, ellipsoidal spore body toward the base; the tip of the conidiogenous cell sometimes remains attached to the otherwise rounded base of seceded spores. The entire cytoplasmic content of the sporiferous cell moves into the spore (refer Castañeda et al. 1993)
Type Species – Aenigmatomyces ampulisporus.
Species