Xylaria haemorrhoidalis Berk. & Broome. Journal of the Linnean Society. Botany 14: 117 (1875).

Index Fungorum number: IF 224410; MycoBank number: MB 224410; Facesoffungi number: FoF 08682; Fig. 1

Saprobic on decaying twig. Sexual morph Stromata 1.2–1.5 cm long, 0.3 cm wide, 0.9 long at stipes, upright, aggregated, unbranched, obclavate, fertile apices, surface pulvinate, black, soft with scattered brown hairs emerging from grooves, internally has white thick hyphae, stalks long very distinct from stroma. Ascomata perithecial 478–630 × 495–580 μm (x̅= 567 × 542 μm, n = 5), globose, clypeate. Necks 152–210 μm high (x̅= 182.5 μm, n=5), periphysate. Peridium 34–41 μm wide, with outer brown cell layers of textura porrecta, inner thin cell layers of textura angularis. Hamathecium comprising 8.5–12 μm wide, septate, branched, longer than asci, sparsely paraphyses. Asci 140–206×(10–)12–18(–21) μm (x̅=167×14 μm, n = 25), 8–spored, unitunicate, cylindrical, apically rounded, urn-shaped J + an apical ring 6–10 × 4–5(–6)
μm (x̅= 8 × 5 μm, n = 25), long pedicellate, persistent. Ascospores (21–)23–26 × 10–12 μm (x̅= 25 × 10.5 μm, n=25), overlapping uni-seriate, hyaline to brown at maturity, ovoid, straight germ slit, obtuse ends, smooth walled. Asexual morph Undetermined.

Material examined – INDIA, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, South Andaman, Mount Harriet, (11°71′09.8″ N 92°73′30.6″ E). Recorded from a decaying log, 7 December 2017, M. Niranjan and V.V. Sarma (PUFNI 1765). Herbarium specimen submitted to Ajrekar Mycological Herbarium-AMH (AMH-10070, new record) and living culture (NFCCI-4369) deposited at National Fungal Culture Collection of India (NFCCI), Agarkhar Research Institute, Pune, Maharashtra, India.

GenBank numbers – ITS=MT572915.

Notes – Xylaria haemorrhoidalis is poorly known due to the fact that very few reports are available on its occurrence (Ju et al. 2009). Dade (1940) synonymized this fungus with X. allantoidea but recent molecular data show that it is distinct (Fig. 2). In the NCBI database, sequence data of only six accessions of X. haemorrhoidalis are available of which three are of ITS and one each of α-actin, β-tubulin and RPB2 genes. It has earlier been reported from Taiwan and the present record from Andaman forests, India extends its geographical range (Fig. 1).

Figure 1 – Xylaria haemorrhoidalis (NFCCI-4369, new record) a Stromata on decaying host. b, c Horizontal section of ascoma. d Peridium. e Paraphyses. f–h Asci. i Hyphae on stromata surface. j, k Ascospores. Scale bars: c=200 μm, d, h, i=50 μm, e–g=20 μm, k, n=10 μm

Figure 2 – Maximum parsimony tree of Xylariaceae constructed by using the ITS sequence. The tree includes both ML and MP values. Rosellinia australiensis is selected as an outgroup taxon. RAxML analysis yielded a minimum scoring tree with a final ML optimization likelihood value of − 5854.053127. The matrix had 393 distinct alignment patterns with 10.20% of undetermined characters or gaps. The maximum parsimonious dataset consists of 626 characters of which 278 were constant, 233 parsimony-informative and 115 parsimony-uninformative. The parsimony analysis of the data matrix resulted in one thousand equally parsimonious trees with a length of 1041 steps (CI 0.540, RI=0.829, RC 0.447, HI=0.460) in the first tree. The overall topology of the phylogenetic trees resulted from ML and MP were similar and incongruent in with earlier studies. The phylogenetic analysis showed that Xylaria haemorrhoidalis NFCC-4369 nested with Xylaria haemorrhoidalis 89041207 with 100% MLBS and 100% MPBS support. Similarly, Xylaria apiospora NFCC-4370 branched with Xylaria multiplex 1010 with week bootstrap support of MPBS. The newly generated sequences are indicated in blue bold