Lizoniaceae Boonmee & K.D. Hyde, Mycosphere 8(10): 1721 (2017).
MycoBank number: MB 553831; Index Fungorum number: IF 553831; Facesoffungi number: FoF 03678, 16 species.
Parasitic, foliicolous on perichaetial leaves of living mosses. Superficial mycelium absents. Sexual morph: Ascomata superficial, solitary or grouped, globose to subglobose, lack, with obscure ostiole. Peridium 3–4 layers of brown cells of textura angularis. Hamathecium comprising numerous, cylindrical, unbranched, septate, cellular pseudoparaphyses. Asci 8-spored, bitunicate, cylindric-clavate, sessile or with short pedicel, rounded at apex. Ascospores 1–2-seriate, ellipsoidal to fusiform, brown, 1-septate, upper cell broader than lower cell. Asexual morph: Undetermined.
Type – Lizonia (Ces. & De Not.) De Not.
Notes – Phylogenetic placement of Lizonia within Pleosporales and sister to Didymellaceae was presented in Stenroos et al. (2010). However, they did not include enough sequence data of Didymellaceae in their analysis. Our analyses, with more representative species of Didymellaceae, indicate that LSU sequence data of Lizonia sexangularis (strains M179 and M222) belong to Didymellaceae (data not shown). While, rpb-2 could not be aligned well with other species and ITS from both strains are too short (163 bp), thus we did not include ITS and rpb-2 in our analyses. Sequence data of the type species of Lizonia is needed to clarify the true phylogenetic placement of Lizonia. Lizoniaceae shares common characters with genera in Pleosporales, however, it can be recognized as a distinct family based on its bryophilous characteristics. Therefore, we retain this family in Pleosporales based mainly on morphology (Stenroos et al. 2010, Döbbeler & Hertel 2013, Boonmee et al. 2017).
Genera