Lophiohelichrysum helichrysi Dayarathne, Camporesi & K.D. Hyde.
Index Fungorum number: IF551401; Facesoffungi number: FoF00914; Fig. 1
Etymology – named after the host genus on which the fungus occurs.
Holotype – MFLU 15–0175
Saprobic on dead stems of Helichrysum sp. Sexual morph: Ascomata 225 – 260μm high, 140 – 200 μm diam., scattered to gregarious, semi-immersed to erumpent, coriaceous, dark brown to black, globose to subglobose, ostiolate, periphysate. Ostiole slit – like, with a flat, crestlike apex. Peridium 35 – 45 μm wide, comprising 4 – 5 layers of brown cells, arranged in a textura angularis, fusing at the outside with the host cells, where cells are occluded and black. Hamathecium comprising numerous, 0.5 – 1.5 μm wide, aseptate, long, filiform pseudoparaphyses, embedded in gelatinous matrix. Asci 45 – 100 × 11 – 20 μm ( x̄ = 72.5 × 15.5 μm; n = 30), 8 – spored, bitunicate, cylindric-clavate, pedicellate, rounded at the apex, with an ocular chamber. Ascospores 15 – 30 × 11 – 16 μm (x̄ = 22.5 × 13.5 μm;
n = 30), overlapping biseriate, hyaline, faintly brown when mature, fusiform, 1 – septate, asymmetrical, upper cell wider than lower cell, slightly constricted at the septum, with guttules in each cell, smooth-walled, without a mucilaginous sheath, 1 – 3 – septate at germination. Asexual morph: Undetermined.
Culture characteristics – Colonies growing on MEA, reaching 8 cm diam. after 2 weeks at 20–25 °C, with circular, grey, dense, mycelium on the surface, reverse brown to black.
Material examined – ITALY, Province of Forlì-Cesena [FC], Santa Sofia, Collina di Pondo, on dead stem of Helichrysum sp. (Asteraceae), 7 March 2014, Erio Camporesi, IT-1296 (MFLU 15-0175, holotype), extype living culture, MFLUCC 15-0701; on dead stem of Helichrysum sp., 3 July 2014, E. Camporesi (MFLU15-1500, paratype).
Fig. 1 Lophiohelichrysum helichrysi (holotype) a Specimen b Ascomata immersed to semi immersed in host tissue c Section through ascoma d Section through neck region e Section through peridium f – i Asci. j Pseudoparaphyses k – n Ascospores with polar appendages o Germinating ascospore p, q Culture on MEA, p from above, n from below. Scale bars: b = 200 μm, c = 100 μm, d, e, j = 20 μm, f – i = 50 μm, k – o = 20 μm.