Fungalpedia – Note 2458, Byssosphaeria
Byssosphaeria. Cooke.
Citation when using this data: Dong W et al. 2020 – Fungalpedia, Ascomycota.
Index Fungorum, Facesoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank
Classification: Melanommataceae, Pleosporales, Pleosporomycetidae, Dothideomycetes, Pezizomycotina, Ascomycota, Fungi
Saprobic on woody angiosperms or submerged wood. Sexual morph: Ascomata solitary, scattered to gregarious, superficial, uniloculate, globose, subglobose or ovoid, with basal subiculum and covered by thick, branched hyphae, dark brown to black, coriaceous, central ostiolate, red or orange at pore, without papilla. Peridium two-layered, outer layer composed of irregular, thick-walled, brown to dark brown cells of textura epidermoidea, inner layer composed of small thin-walled, pale brown cells. Pseudoparaphyses dense, trabeculate, long, embedded in mucilage, anastomosing between and above asci. Asci 8-spored, bitunicate, fissitunicate, cylindro-clavate to clavate, with short pedicel, apically rounded with an ocular chamber. Ascospores uni- to bi-seriate, fusiform, tapering at both ends, mostly straight, sometimes slightly curved, hyaline to pale brown, 1-septate, verrucose (Tian et al. 2015). Asexual morph: Coelomycetous. Pycnidia formed in culture. Conidiogenous cells phialidic, lining cavity. Conidia hyaline, ellipsoid or subglobose (Barr 1984).
Notes: Byssosphaeria is characterized by superficial ascomata with bright yellow, orange or red, flat apices around the ostiole, with thick, branched hyphae, and hyaline to pale brown ascospores (Tian et al. 2015). Byssosphaeria differs from Herpotrichia Fuckel in having superficial ascomata with red or orange at pore (Zhang et al. 2012b; Tian et al. 2015). Byssosphaeria was shown to belong to Melanommataceae based on molecular data of some species (Zhang et al. 2012b; Tian et al. 2015). Sequence data of the type species B. keithii are unavailable. The freshwater species B. schiedermayeriana (Fuckel) M.E. Barr was found from Seychelles, but not supported by molecular data. Three terrestrial strains of
B. schiedermayeriana clustered in Melanommataceae with good bootstrap support (Liu et al. 2015; Tian et al. 2015).
Type species: Byssosphaeria keithii (Berk. & Broome) Cooke [as ‘keitii’].
Other accepted species: Species Fungorum – search Byssosphaeria.
References
Barr ME (1984) Herpotrichia and its segregates. Mycotaxon 20:1–38
Zhang Y, Crous PW, Schoch CL, Hyde KD 2012b – Pleosporales. Fungal Divers 53:1–221.
Entry by
Wei Dong, Faculty of Agriculture and Food, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650500, China, Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Faculty of Agriculture, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand, Innovative Agriculture Research Center, Faculty of Agriculture, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand, Center of Excellence in Fungal Research, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai 57100, Thailand, Institute of Plant Health, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, Haizhu District, Guangzhou 510225, China
Published online 22 May 2026