Sporocadaceae Corda, Icon. Fungorum (Prague) 5: 34 (1842)

MycoBank number: MB 81408; Index Fungorum number: IF 81408; Facesoffungi number: FoF 06111; 750 species.

Saprobic or pathogenic on leaves, twigs, branches, fruits of flowering plants and gymnosperms, as endophytes or parasitic on humans and animals. Sexual morph: Ascomata scattered or confluent, perithecial, immersed to erumpent, black to dark brown. Ostiole circular, papillate. Peridium comprising several layers of cells of textura prismatica, brown at the base, dark brown outwardly. Paraphyses numerous, hypha-like, flexuose, filiform. Asci 8-spored, unitunicate, obclavate to cylindrical, with or without a discoid, J+ subapical ring. Ascospores overlapping uniseriate or biseriate, obovoid to ellipsoid, transversally septate, longitudinal septum in mid cells, with or without vertical septa, hyaline, pale brown to brown. Asexual morph: Coelomycetous. Conidiomata scattered to gregarious, subepidermal or subepidermal in origin, immersed to erumpent, pycnidial, acervular, stromatic or synnematous in Synnemapestaloides. Conidiomata wall composed of at least 3–4 layers of cells of textura angularis to textura prismatica, outer 1–2- layers brown and inner 1–2 layers hyaline or pale brown. Conidiophores arising from the inner layer cells of basal stroma, absent or reduced to conidiogenous cells, when present, long, septate and branched, hyaline, smooth. Conidiogenous cells holoblastic, annellidic, ampulliform, cylindrical to subcylindrical, or lageniform, mostly hyaline. Conidia cylindrical to clavate, or fusiform, straight or curved, 2–4-euseptate, smooth or verruculose, median cells hyaline, pale olivaceous or pale brown to dark brown, bearing cellular, terminal cells mostly hyaline, appendages absent or if present, tubular, filiform, straight or flexuous, branched or unbranched (adapted from Maharachchikumbura et al. 2016b, Liu et al. 2019a).

Type genus – Sporocadus Corda

Notes – Sporocadaceae includes genera that are typically appendaged bearing coelomycetes and have been subjected to several taxonomic re-classifications (Nag Raj 1993, Maharachchikumbura et al. 2016b, Liu et al. 2019a). The family was re-validated by Jaklitsch et al. (2016b) and Bartaliniaceae, Discosiaceae, Pestalotiopsidaceae and Robillardaceae (Crous et al. 2015a, Senanayake et al. 2015) were treated as synonyms of Sporocadaceae. In addition to the phylogeny, morphology of the asexual morph genera having acervular conidiomata that produce hyaline, pale or dark brown, septate conidia were taken into the consideration when they were assigned to the family. Jaklitsch et al. (2016b) and Wijayawardene et al. (2018a) accepted 22 genera under Sporocadaceae.

Studies on Sporocadaceae were mostly based on ITS and LSU sequence data and these regions were not informative in resolving generic boundaries within the family (Jaklitsch et al. 2016b, Liu et al. 2019a). The most recent study by Liu et al. (2019a) provided a revision of this family complete with morphology and multi-gene phylogeny based on the LSU, ITS and rpb2 sequence data and further analysis using protein coding genes (tef1 or tub2) for each genus. As a result, seven new genera were introduced and the placement of 23 known genera were confirmed. Here, we follow the treatments and updated classification as presented by Liu et al. (2019a). The accepted genera are listed below with illustrations and a description with two new host records of Sporocadaceae.

Genera