Fungalpedia – Note 2725, Asterophoma
Asterophoma D. Hawksw.
Citation when using this data: Meng QF et al. – Fungalpedia.
Index Fungorum, Faceoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank, Fig 1.
Classification: Ascomycota genera incertae sedis, Fungi.
Asterophoma was established by Hawksworth (1981b) with the type species A. mazaediicola, discovered on Calicium trabinellum. The genus is characterized by solitary, uniloculate, globose pycnidia that are dark brown to black and ostiolate. Its conidiogenous cells are enteroblastic, acrogenous, narrowly ampulliform to broadly subcylindrical, phialidic, occasionally biphialidic, and hyaline. The conidia are minute, smooth-walled, subcylindrical, hyaline, and simple, aggregating into a slimy mass that is extruded through the ostiole as a whitish drop (Hawksworth 1981b).
Initially, Hawksworth (1981b) placed Asterophoma within Sphaeropsidales. Subsequently, Diederich et al. (2018a) transferred it to Ascomycota as genera incertae sedis, pending further phylogenetic confirmation based on molecular data.
Type species: Asterophoma mazaediicola D. Hawksw., on Calicium trabinellum (Hawksworth 1981b)
Other accepted species: Species Fungorum – search Asterophoma.
Figure 1 – Asterophoma mazaediicola redrawn from Hawksworth (1981b). a Infected mazaedium with pycnidia extruding conidia in mucilaginous drops. b Vertical section of pycnidium. c Conidiogenous cells. d Conida. Scale bars: a = 100 μm, b, c = 10 μm, d = 5 μm.
References
Hawksworth DL. 1981b – The lichenicolous Coelomycetes. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Botany 9 (1), 1–98.
Entry by
Meng QF, Center of Excellence in Fungal Research, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai, 57100, Thailand and School of Public Health, Zunyi Medical University, Guizhou 563000, China.
Published online 22 July 2026