Baral H.-O.
Vol. 15 (2) – 01 June 2023
doi: 10.25664/art-0371
Only for subscribers
Abstract: Four species of Venturiocistella, V. gaylussaciae, V. heterotricha, V. ulicicola, and V. uliginosa, are redescribed and illustrated from type material studied during 1995–96. Illustrations and notes from fresh collections from the years 2004–2005 are presented for V. ulicicola. Among the three known species occurring on leaves of Ericaceae, V. uliginosa differs from V. venturioides and V. gaylussaciae by larger asci and much larger ascospores, while both V. uliginosa and V. gaylussaciae have shorter spiny hairs than V. venturioides. The asci of V. uliginosa arise from simple septa in contrast to V. venturioides and other species of the genus, while in V. gaylussaciae this character could not be clarifed. The two lignicolous species V. pini and V. ulicicola share a large, hemiamyloid apical ring, which is much broader than in the leaf-inhabiting species, and a hemiamyloid lateral ascus wall. This latter feature was otherwise in the genus only observed in V. diversipila, a species known from leaves of Betula and Populus. V. ulicicola differs from V. pini by longer spiny hairs and longer, often curved ascospores with a higher lipid content. A new genus Helicoscypha is proposed for V. heterotricha based on strongly deviating hair characteristics and a very different ascospore morphology. An emended key to the species of Venturiocistella is provided.
Venturiocistella Raitv. is a genus of minute discomycetes which was formerly assigned to Hyaloscyphaceae in the sense of Nannfeldt (1932), but is now included in the segregated family Hyphodiscaceae (Ekanayaka et al., 2019) together with Fuscolachnum J.H. Haines, Hyphodiscus Kirschst., and some other taxa. Venturiocistella is characterized by having two types of hairs: dark brown, thick-walled, non-septate, only basally warted spiny hairs and […]