Fungalpedia – Note 3043, Ageratinicolaceae
Ageratinicolaceae Lu L., K.D. Hyde & Tibpromma.
Citation when using this data: Senanayake IC et al. 2023 – Fungalpedia.
Index Fungorum, Faceoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank.
Classification: Pleosporales, Pleosporomycetidae, Dothideomycetes, Pezizomycotina, Ascomycota, Dikarya, Fungi.
Saprobic on dead or dying plant litter, wood, stems, and branches in terrestrial habitat. Sexual morph: Undetermined. Asexual morph: Coelomycetous. Conidiomata eustromatic, immersed, globose to subglobose, uni- to multi-loculate with ostioles. Pycnidial walls comprising cells of textura angularis. Conidiophores reduced to conidiogenous cells. Conidiogenous cells enteroblastic, globose to cylindrical, with periclinal thickening or percurrent proliferation at the apex, hyaline. Conidia oval to ellipsoid, muriform, septate, hyaline to brown.
Notes: Ageratinicolaceae is introduced to accommodate Foliophoma and Ageratinicola gen. nov. In the phylogenetic analyses, Ageratinicolaceae formed an independent branch between Libertasomycetaceae and Coniothyriaceae. Ageratinicolaceae can be distinguished from Coniothyriaceae and Libertasomycetaceae by their muriform, non-constricted conidia at the septa. However, conidia of Coniothyriaceae are phoma-like, camarosporium-like, coniothyrium-like, or cladosporium-like, and Libertasomycetaceae has conidia which constricted at the median septum with longitudinal striations (Crous and Groenewald 2017; Wijesinghe et al. 2023).
Foliophoma was introduced based on Phoma fallens (= Foliophoma fallens) accommodating in Coniothyriaceae and it is characterized by distinct eustromatic, uni – to multi-loculate conidiomata with 1–3 ostioles, hyaline and ellipsoidal conidia (Crous and Groenewald 2017). Multi-gene phylogenetic trees in Hyde et al. (2020a) and Wijesinghe et al. (2023) are shown that Foliophoma is clustered basal to Coniothyriaceae. In our phylogenetic tree (Senanayake IC et al. 2023), Foliophoma grouped with the new genus Ageratinicola forming a sister clade to Coniothyriaceae with ML = 89%, BI = 0.97 statistical support (Senanayake IC et al. 2023). However, Foliophoma shares similar characters with Coniothyriaceae such as globose to short, cylindrical conidiogenous cells and also similar to the Ageratinicolaceae fam. nov. by having oval to ellipsoid and brown conidia (Crous and Groenewald 2017; Hyde et al. 2020a). Therefore, based on morphology and phylogeny, we introduced Ageratinicolaceae as a distinct family in Pleosporales for Foliophoma and Ageratinicola gen. nov.
Type genus: Ageratinicola Lu L., K.D. Hyde & Tibpromma.
Other accepted species: Species Fungorum – search Ageratinicolaceae.
References
Crous PW, Groenewald JZ. 2017 – The genera of fungi G 4: Camarosporium and Dothiora. IMA fungus 8: 131–152.
Entry by
Indunil C. Senanayake, Innovative Institute for Plant Health/ Key Laboratory of Green Prevention and Control on Fruits and Vegetables in South China, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, Haizhu District, Guangzhou 510225, Guangdong, China., Center of Excellence in Fungal Research, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai 57100, Thailand., Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory for Plant Epigenetics, College of Life Science and Oceanography, Shenzhen University, 3688, Nanhai Avenue, Nanshan, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518055, China., University of L’Aquila, Department MeSVA, sect. Environmental Sciences, Via Vetoio, 67100 Coppito (AQ), Italy.
Published online 28 August 2026