Pseudoastrosphaeriellaceae Phookamsak & K.D. Hyde, Fungal Divers 74: 181 (2015).
MycoBank number: MB 551650; Index Fungorum number: IF 551650; Facesoffungi number: FoF 01233, 9 species.
Saprobic on bamboo, mangroves or palms. Sexual morph: Ascostromata brown to dark brown, scattered, solitary to gregarious, immersed to erumpent through host surface by papilla, slightly conical or hemisphaerical to lenticular, uni- to bi-loculate, coriaceous, ostiolate, papillate, or with short to long neck. Peridium of unequal thickness, thick at the sides, composed of hyaline to dark brown peudoparenchymatous cells, comprising host cells plus fungal tissue, inner layer arranged in textura angularis to textura prismatica, outer layer arranged in textura prismatica to textura porrecta or arranged in textura angularis. Hamathecium comprising trabeculate pseudoparaphyses. Asci 8-spored, bitunicate, clavate to cylindric-clavate, pedicellate, apically rounded, with ocular chamber. Ascospores overlapping 1–3-seriate, fusiform with rounded or acute ends, hyaline or brown to reddish brown, septate, constricted at the septum, with or without striations, or with longitudinal ridges towards the ends, with or without mucilaginous sheath. Asexual morph: Coelomycetous. Conidiomata pycnidial, scattered, solitary, immersed, conical or hemisphaerical to globose, ostiolate. Pycnidial walls of unequal thickness, composed of dark brown to black, pseudoparenchymatous cells, arranged in textura angularis to textura intricata. Conidiophores arising from the basal cavity, cylindrical, unbranched or branched, reduced to conidiogenous cells. Conidiogenous cells holoblastic, phialidic, discrete, hyaline, cylindric-clavate or ampulliform, septate, smooth-walled. Conidia globose to subglobose, or oblong, hyaline, aseptate, smooth-walled.
Type – Pseudoastrosphaeriella Phookamsak, Z.L. Luo & K.D. Hyde.
Notes – Pseudoastrosphaeriellaceae was introduced to accommodate a single genus Pseudoastrosphaeriella by Phookamsak et al. (2015b). Species of Pseudoastrosphaeriella were previously placed in Astrosphaeriella based on coriaceous ascomata with a papilla or necks and striate ascospores (Hawksworth & Boise 1985). Later Phookamsak et al. (2015b) found that the Pseudoastrosphaeriella species forming a clade apart from Astrosphaeriella in their phylogenetic analyses. Based on morphological comparisons and phylogenetic analyses, Hyde et al. (2017) accommodated Carinispora in Pseudoastrosphaeriellaceae, and Phookamsak et al. (2019) introduced another novel genus, Pseudoastrosphaeriellopsis. Until now, there are three genera accommodated in the family and only Pseudoastrosphaeriella has been reported to have an asexual morph.