Englerulaceae Henn., Hedwigia 43: 353 (1904).

= Schiffnerulaceae Hosag., Pl. Pathol. Quarant. 1(2): 132 (2011).

MycoBank number: MB 80736; Index Fungorum number: IF 80736; Facesoffungi number: FoF 07960, 125 species.

Parasitic or epiphytic on living leaves, primarily tropical. Colonies superficial, thin to dense, brown to dark brown, confluent, velvety, with unicellular appressoria. Hyphae straight to flexuous, septate, irregularly to reticulate branched, brown. Hyphopodia globose, brown, thick-walled, irregular or absent. Sexual morph: Ascomata relatively globose to subglobose, pedicellate, with an ocular chamber. Ascospores uni- to multi-seriate, oblong to ellipsoid, ellipsoid to ovate, or fusiform, hyaline to dark brown, 1-septate, smooth-walled, constricted at the septum. Asexual morph: Conidiomata pycnidial, similar to ascomata, superficial, globose, thin-walled. Conidiogenous cells holoblastic, phialidic, discrete, hyaline, smooth, 1-celled, nearly ampulliform, alternate or absent. Conidia oblong to ovate, globose or nearly globose, hyaline to brown, aseptate.

Type: Englerula Henn.

Notes: Englerulaceae was introduced by Hennings (1904a, b) for taxa with brown to dark brown colonies on host leaves, with superficial hyphae, scattered, ascomata lacking ostioles. Lumbsch and Huhndorf (2007, 2010) included seven genera (Englerula, Goosia, Parenglerula, Rhizotexis, Rhytidenglerula, Schiffnerulaand and Thrauste) in the family, while Hyde et al. (2011) considered Schiffnerulaceae (Hosagoudar 2011) to be a synonym. Schiffnerula was introduced by von Höhnel (1909b) and placed in Englerulaceae based on its globose ascomata and globose to ovate asci. Hosagoudar (2011) included four asexual genera in the family with more than 100 species. Schiffnerula has dark colonies on the leaf surface, with brown, superficial, septate mycelium, 8-spored, bitunicate, cylindrical to globose asci, and brown, 1-septate, ascospores which are constricted at the septa. With such characters Schiffnerula can be accommodated in Englerulaceae (Hyde et al. 2013). Dai et al. (2014b) redescribed and illustrated type species of all genera in this family. They suggested that Rhizotexis should be excluded from this family and placed into Dothideomycetes genera incertae sedis based on having stromatic ascomata and lack of hyphae.

There is no molecular data for any species of Englerulaceae in GenBank. Fresh collections and molecular data are required to clarify the relationships in Englerulaceae. Englerulaceae are closely related to the Asterinaceae, but differ in having sphaerical ascomata without radiate wall and growing on brown mycelium (von Arx and Müller 1975; Eriksson 1981; Hyde et al. 2013).

Genera