description_method_culture
culture
Perithecial stromata when dry (1.0-)1.5-4(-7) x (0.8-)1.2-3.0(-6.0) mm, (0.5-)0.7-1.7(-2.3) mm thick (n = 50), solitary, less commonly in groups of 2-3, scattered, erumpent from bark, highly variable in shape and color; first appearing as a compact pseudoparenchymatous sterile hypostroma, on which pycnidia and later perithecia, often mixed on the same stroma, develop. Stromata turbinate or pulvinate; outline circular or oblong; fertile upper part often laterally projecting above the hypostroma; lower sides similar to the surface, sterile, smooth. Surface convex, flat or concave, glabrous or, particularly when young, clothed with short whitish hairs to ca. 30 µm long. Perithecia crowded in large numbers, up to more than 100, on the stroma surface, nearly free with visible outlines or partly or entirely immersed in the uppermost layer of the stroma. Ostiole openings (30-)35-75(-120) µm diam (n = 70), plane, convex to papillate; orange, red to nearly black; darkened parts of perithecia surrounding the ostioles to ca. 250 µm diam. Stroma color variable, of various yellow tones, often mixed with red, or orange-red, less commonly dark red or purple. Stroma inside compact and dense, consisting of a whitish core and a pale to bright yellow peripheral region, bright yellow to orange also between and above perithecia. Upon rehydration ascospores ejected in rosy to cream tendrils; perithecia turning bright orange-red; unchanged in 3% KOH. Anatomy of stromata and perithecia in vertical section. - Cortical layer (22-)25-45(-60) µm thick (n = 20), consisting of a yellow t. angularis-globulosa of thick-walled cells (4-)6-11(-13) x (3.5-)5-7(-8) µm (n = 33) in section, partly perforated by thick-walled hyphae; brightly yellow in glycerol; gradually merging into subcortical tissue. Stroma surface sometimes covered by a thin, red outer layer of collapsed cells and amorphous material. Subcortical tissue between and above perithecia comprising a hyaline to pale yellowish t. intricata of thin-walled hyphae (2.5-)3-5 (-6.5) µm wide (n = 30). Subperithecial tissue mostly consisting of a t. angularis of thin-walled, hyaline to pale yellowish cells (4-)8-20(-28) x (3.5-)6-12(-15) µm (n = 30), dense in lower regions, directly below perithecia looser and mixed with hyphae 4-8(-13) µm (n = 30) wide. Cells in marginal areas thicker-walled, smaller, yellow, orange to rosy in lactic acid, reddish orange or purple in glycerol or KOH. Basal tissue a dense, hyaline to yellowish t. intricata of thin-walled hyphae (1.7-)2.5-4.0(-5.0) µm (n = 33) wide. Ostioles periphysate, (74-)90-120(-135) µm long, (55-)68-112(-120) µm wide at the apex externally, (24-)28-55(-78) µm wide inside (n = 20); apex rounded or flat. Perithecia (225-)280-345(-370) µm high including ostiole, (163-)205-265(-280) µm diam (n = 20), spheroid, contents rosy in lactic acid and glycerol. Peridium (25-)32-44(-50) µm thick, of a hyaline, (10-) 14-20(-25) µm thick inner layer and a yellow, (14-) 17-25(-30) µm thick (n = 20) outer layer; both layers comprising elongate, thick-walled, refractive cells, tending to be smaller and more globose outward. Asci (51-) 64-88(-104) x (7-)10-14(-16) µm, including a stipe (0-)3-20(-34) µm long (n = 52), spore part in vivo mostly 60-75 µm long, oblong, narrowly clavate or fusoid, with eight ascospores partly crowded in upper parts, without a differentiated apex. Ascospores (10-) 13-17(-21) x (4.0-)4.7-5.7(-7.0) µm, l/w (1.8-)2.5-3.4(-4.5) (n = 150), ellipsoid, oblong or fusoid, hyaline to faintly yellowish, with a median or slightly eccentric, not or scarcely constricted septum, rarely two septa, straight, symmetrical or slightly curved, thick-walled, smooth, inconspicuously multiguttulate. Anamorph on the natural hosts. - Compound pycnidia 0.3-0.9 mm developing atop hypostromata; semiglobose or pulvinate, Gyrostroma-like, multilocular, without a recognizable opening; pale or bright yellow, less commonly reddish; rosy or orange inside; opening by longitudinal fissures to expose several discoid conidiomata 0.2-0.7 mm diam, with bright orange, waxy, often confluent masses of conidia and conidiophores on top. Pycnidia in vertical sections mounted in 50% glycerol (220-)270-430(-550) µm high, (220-)300-600(-700) µm wide (n = 30), with circular or ellipsoid outline. Peridium (20-)27-62(-80) µm wide (n =30), lacking at the base; two-layered, inner layer of hyaline hyphae, outer layer of a thick t. angularis of thick-walled cells (3-) 5-9(-11) x (2.5-)3.5-6.5(-9.0) µm (n = 30), (sub)-hyaline in lactic acid, pale yellow in glycerol and KOH. Pycnidial surface uneven, with short hairs on the surface, particularly toward the base. Hairs (10-)11-36(-57) x (2.8-)3.5-5.5(-6.0) µm (n = 31), cylindrical, with broadly rounded ends or slightly enlarged end cell, with walls 1-1.5 µm, with warts, 2-8-celled. Locules with delicate, irregularly oriented inner walls and hyaline to rosy masses of conidia and densely packed conidiophores. Conidiophores typically formed in subcircular arrangements, originating either on a single cylindrical cell 3-12 x 2-3(-3.5) µm or on a common, often irregularly swollen hypha up to 6 µm wide; hyaline, short, variable, 1-6-celled, mostly asymmetric. Phialides formed in whorls of 2-8 or singly laterally on branches. Conidiophores in mounts including phialides ca. 20-37 µm long. After the dehiscence of conidiomata conidiophores mostly degenerated; orange masses comprising mostly conidia. Phialides (4.0-)8.5-12.7(-15.4) x (1.2-)1.4-2.0 (-2.2) µm, l/w (3.5-)5.2-7.7(-8.9) (n = 63), subulate or narrowly lageniform, symmetrical or inequilateral when laterally in a whorl, straight or curved. Conidia (3.0-)4.0-5.5(-7.5) x (1.0-)1.2-1.5(-1.7) µm, l/w (2.1-)2.8-4(-5.8) (n = 125), numerous, cylindrical or allantoid with slight curvature, sigmoid in age, unicellular, hyaline, smooth. Habitat. - On recently dead, standing or lying branches/trunks of Caragana spp., including C. arborescens, Colutea arborescens and Laburnum anagyroides. Distribution. - Austria, in and around Vienna. Lectotype here designated. - Austria, Vienna, 3rd District, Botanical Garden, on corticated dead branches of Caragana arborescens, without date, V. Schiffner, Kryptogamae exsiccatae editae a Museo Palatino Vindobonensi 1612 (WU, not numbered, labeled as original specimen). Isotype: ibid., 24 Nov 1904, V. Schiffner (WU, not numbered, labeled as original specimen). Epitype, here designated to consolidate the relationship of teleomorph, anamorph, culture and gene sequences: Austria, Vienna, 3rd District, Botanical Garden, on corticated branches of Caragana spp., 8 Apr 2010, H. Voglmayr (WU 30197, ex-epitype culture NCar = CBS 127387; ex-epitype sequences SSU-ITS1-5.8S-ITS2-LSU HQ112287 [GenBank], tef1 HQ112285 [GenBank]).
Stromatonectria caraganae
Stromatonectria caraganae