Neosonderhenia – Facesoffungi number: FoF 15356

Neosonderhenia Crous, gen. nov.

MycoBank number: MB 832025; Index Fungorum number: IF 832025; Facesoffungi number: FoF 15356;

Etymology – Name reflects its similarity to the genus Sonderhenia.

Leaf spots amphigenous, pale brown, circular, 2– 3 mm diam, red-purple margin. Ascomata pseudothecial, immersed, with central ostiole; wall of 3– 6 layers of brown textura angularis. Asci 8-spored, bitunicate, sessile, fasciculate with small ocular chamber. Ascospores hyaline, smooth, guttulate, median septate. Conidiomata globose, immersed, subepidermal with central ostiole, brown; wall of 3– 6 layers of brown textura angularis. Conidiophores reduced to inconspicuous conidiogenous cells lining the cavity, doliiform, pale brown, proliferating percurrently. Paraphyses hyaline, subcylindrical, sparsely septate. Conidia solitary, medium brown, verrcuculose, distoseptate with central pore at each septum, apex subobtuse, base truncate.

Type species – Neosonderhenia eucalypti Crous

Notes – Neosonderhenia has pycnidial conidiomata, distoseptate conidia with a central pore, brown, percurrently proliferating conidiogenous cells, and a teratosphaeria-like sexual morph Although all species of Neosonderhenia have conidiomatal paraphyses, this feature is not definitive, as some species of Sonderhenia (e.g. S. radiata) also exhibit this feature. These genera are thus best distinguished based on their  DNA phylogeny.

Species