Pewenomyces Balocchi, I. Barnes & M. J. Wingf gen. nov.

Index Fungorum number: MB 834914; Facesoffungi number: FoF

Etymology: From “pewen”, the name of Araucaria in the Mapudungun, language of the native Chilean and Argentinian Mapuche culture.

Type species: Pewenomyces kutranfy Balocchi, I. Barnes & M.J. Wingf

Ascomata Individually or gregarious, arising individually or in pairs from a subepidermal stroma that may or may not erupt and become evident. Black in colour, ventricose, sometimes straight but most commonly tilted, ascigerous swelling position variable, mostly subapical to medium but also submedian, rarely collapsed to one side, very rarely branched. A powdery reddish-brown mass of ma- ture ascospores accumulate on tip of mature ascomata. Ascomal wall of textura porrecta to textura prismática, interior textura intricata. Asci containing 8 spores, spathulate, ovoid to ellipsoid in spore bearing part, with a long and slender stipe, deliquescent. Ascospores reddish brown, thick-walled, mostly globose, but some ovoid to ellipsoid, verrucose. Spermogonia gregarious, erupting from plant tissue, black in colour, globose or piriform at maturity, creamy white spore exuda- tion coming from an ostiole when mature. Spermatia hyaline, asym-metric, oblong, ovoid or reniform, aseptate, smooth.

Notes: –  Pewenomyces ascomatal morphology and arrange- ments are more similar to those of Hypsotheca and Caliciopsis than to other genera in the Coryneliaceae. Ascomatal characteristics and dimensions have typically been used to separate genera in Coryneliaceae, and the existence of a stipe under the ascigerous swelling has been seen as the diagnostic morphological feature for Caliciopsis (Fitzpatrick, 1942b). More recently, the existence of a stipe has emerged as a common feature of Caliciopsis, Hypsotheca, and Pewenomyces, separating these three genera from the rest of the family. As a consequence, the existence of a stipe in Pewenomyces ascocarps serves as evidence that this genus does not reside with the remaining and unsequenced genera of the Coryneliaceae, that is, Coryneliospora, Coryneliopsis, Coryneliella, and Fitzpatrickella (Benny et al., 1985a, 1985b; Fitzpatrick, 1942a).