Savoryellaceae Jaklitsch & Réblová, Index Fungorum 209: 1 (2015)

MycoBank number: MB 551026; Index Fungorum number: IF 551026; Facesoffungi number: FoF 01283; 42 species.

Saprobic on submerged wood in freshwater, marine and brackish habitats. Sexual morph: Ascomata perithecial, brown to black, immersed or superficial, globose to pyriform, coriaceous, periphysate, ostiolate, papillate. Papilla central or eccentric when lying horizontally to the host. Peridium membranous, comprising several layers of brown, thick-walled cells of textura angularis, inner layers hyaline. Paraphyses hypha-like, numerous or sparse, septate. Asci 2–8-spored, unitunicate, clavate to cylindrical, pedicellate, persistent, with a small or relatively large, J-, apical ring. Ascospores uniseriate or overlapping biseriate, versicolorous with brown middle cells and hyaline end cells, ellipsoid, fusiform, 3 to many septate, smooth, thick-walled, with or without polar mucilaginous pads or appendages. Asexual morph: Hyphae septate, branched, hyaline to pale brown. Conidiophores semi-macronematous (conidiophores that are only slightly different from the vegetative hyphae). Conidiogenous cells absent or if present erect, smooth and thick-walled, holoblastic, cylindrical, flask-shaped. Conidia solitary, dry, smooth, applanate or rounded, globose to subglobose or obovate to oval, with longitudinal septa and transverse septa or only transversely septate, slightly constricted at the septa, with a pale brown small basal cell, olive green to brown or blackish brown to black, with prominent scar at the point of secession from the conidiogenous cell (adapted from Luo et al. 2019).

Type genusSavoryella E.B.G. Jones & R.A. Eaton

Notes – Savoryellaceae was introduced by Jaklitsch & Réblová (2015) to accommodate Savoryella. Savoryellaceae was previously placed in Sordariales genera incertae sedis by Jones et al. (2009), in Savoryellales by Boonyuen et al. (2011). Hyde et al. (2017a) suggested that Savoryellales be raised to subclass rank based on the estimated stem age (Savoryellales; 267 MYA) and Hongsanan et al. (2017) supported this by phylogenetic and molecular clock analyses and, hence, introduced the subclass Savoryellomycetidae. Four other genera, i.e. Ascotaiwania, Canalisporium, Savoryella and Neoascotaiwania were included in the family along with the species Helicoön farinosum and Monotosporella species (Jones et al. 2015, Hernández-Restrepo et al. 2017, Wijayawardene et al. 2018a). Several types of asexual morphs, bactrodesmium-like, dictyosporium-like, monodictys-like, monotosporella-like, trichocladium-like are linked under Savoryellaceae (Sivichai et al. 1998, Ranghoo & Hyde 1998, Chang 2001, Sri-indrasutdhi et al. 2010, Réblová et al. 2015, Hernández-Restrepo et al. 2017). The distant placement of Helicoon farinosum, the asexual morph of Ascotaiwania hughesii (Fallah et al. 1999), from species of Savoryellales was revealed by rDNA data (Boonyuen et al. 2011, Réblová et al. 2012) and, hence, Ascotaiwania was considered polyphyletic (Hernández-Restrepo et al. 2017). Dayarathne et al. (2019a) revised the family with combined LSU, SSU, tef1 and rpb2 data along with molecular clock analyses and synonymized Neoascotaiwania under Ascotaiwania and, further, excluded the Monotosporella species, Helicoön farinosum and Ascotaiwania hughesii from the family. Dematisporium was introduced by Luo et al. (2019) and therefore, currently Savoryellaceae comprises four genera, Ascotaiwania, Canalisporium, Dermatrosporium and Savoryella.

Figure 224 – Ascomatal, asci and ascospore morphology of the genera of Savoryellaceae: S. grandispora (Material examined – MALAYSIA, State Negara, Lipur Lentang Nature Reserve, on submerged wood, October 1991, K.D. Hyde, BRIP 20918, holotype), Savoryella lignicola (Material examined – UK, Flintshire, Connah’s Quay, on Scots pine test-blocks placed for 168 days amongst the packing timber of a water -cooling tower at Connah’s Quay, 16 June 1966 and 1 December 1966, IMI 129784, IMI 129785 holotype), S. longispora (Material examined – UK, Flintshire, Connah’s Quay, on Scots pine test-blocks placed for 168 days amongst the packing timber of a water -cooling tower at Connah’s Quay, 16 June1966 and 1 December 1966, IMI 129784, IMI 129785, holotype), S. yunnanensis (Material examined – CHINA, Yunnan Province, Dehong, on submerged wood in a stream, 25 November 2017, W. Dong, H40C, MFLU 18-1203, holotype), Canalisporium caribense (Material examined – THAILAND, Chiang Rai Province, stream flowing in Tham Luang Nang Non Cave, on submerged wood, 25 November 2014, J. Yang, MFLU15-3581, holotype). a, b Ascomata of S. lignicola. c, d Peridium and paraphyses of S. yunnanensis. e-g Asci of S. lignicola, S. grandispora, S. yunnanensis respectively. h Apical ring of S. i-l Ascospores of S. grandispora, S. lignicola, S. longispora and S. yunnanensis respectively. m Conidia attached to the conidiophores of C. caribense. n Conidia attached to the conidiophores of A. fusiformis. o-q Conidiogenous cells and conidia of A. lignicola (Chang 2001). c, d A. sawadae (Ranghoo & Hyde 1998) A. uniseptata (Kirk 1983) respectively. Scale bars: b, c = 100 μm, d, e = 50 μm, f-i = 10 μm.