Fungalpedia – Note 2860, Cacumisporium
Cacumisporium. Preuss.
Citation when using this data: Wenping Wu et al. 2022 – Fungalpedia.
Index Fungorum, Facesoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank
Classification: Incertae sedis, Incertae sedis, Incertae sedis, Incertae sedis, Pezizomycotina, Ascomycota, Fungi
Lignicolous on rotten wood, colonies effuse, hairy, brown to grayish brown. Teleomorph: Ascomata superficial, solitary or in groups of 3–5, subglobose to conical, papillate, papilla perforated by a rounded pore in old perithecia, ostiolate, dark brown to black, glistening, glabrous or covered with conidiophores of the anamorph, slightly rugose. Perithecial wall brittle, consisting of two layers; an outer layer of thin-walled, dark brown, opaque, polyhedral to bricklike cells, and an inner layer of thin-walled, compressed, hyaline cells. Ostiolar canal periphysate. Paraphyses copious, branching, septate, protruding beyond the tips of the asci. Asci clavate-cylindrical, narrowly rounded at the tip, with a J-, refractive apical annulus. Ascospores cylindrical to cylindrical-fusiform or fusiform, occasionally tapering towards one end, 5-septate, not constricted or very slightly constricted at the septa, smooth-walled, hyaline, 2–3-seriate, overlapping in the upper part of the ascus, germinating by germ tubes at the ends. Anamorph: Conidiophores solitary, erect, straight, or slightly curved, simple, cylindrical, septate, brown, paler towards the apex, smooth. Conidiogenous cells integrated, monoblastic, cylindrical, pale brown to medium brown, smooth, with a pale brown, funnel- or cup-shaped and flaring collarette. Conidia holoblastic, aggregated in slimy heads, allantoid, ellipsoidal, fusiform, or oblong rounded at the apex, truncate at the base, at first colorless with large guttulate, later brown and transversely septate, smooth.
Ecology/Substrate/Host: Saprobe on decaying plant material, including rotten wood.
Geographical distribution: Broadly distributed.
Description and illustration: Goos (1969a); Ellis (1976); Seifert et al. (2011).
Notes: The genus Cacumisporium, typified by Cacumisporium tenebrosum (= Cacumisporium capitulatum), is characterized by solitary, dark brown and septate conidiophores, phialidic conidiogenous cells with broad and cupulate collarettes, and brown, septate conidia aggregated in slimy heads (Goos 1969a; Seifert et al. 2011). The genus currently comprises eight species: C. capitulatum, C. fusiforme, C. pleuroconidiophorum (= C. curvularioides), C. sigmoideum, C. spooneri, C. rugosum, C. tropicale and C. uniseptatum (Ellis 1976; Kirk 1992; Castaneda-Ruiz and Kendrick 1991; Mercado Sierra and Castaneda-Ruiz 1987; Tsui et al. 2001b; Castaneda-Ruiz et al. 2007a, b; Wongsawas et al. 2009; Xu et al. 2019). These species can be distinguished by their conidial morphology, including color, size, and septation. A synopsis for all of these species was given by Tsui et al. (2001a, b, c) and an identification key for them was provided by Xu et al. (2019).
Conidiogenous cells of Cacumisporium have been considered to be sympodial-phialides resembling species of Chloridium s. lat., in which conidia are produced in sympodial succession from a conidiogenous cell above a phialidic collarette (Goos 1969a; Hammill 1972; Cole and Samson 1979; Réblová and Gams 1999). Similar phialidic conidiogenous cells were also found in C. rugosum. This is consistent with that illustrated by Goos (1969a, b) for C. capitulatum. However, several recently described species are with typical holoblastic conidiogenous cells and sympodial proliferation and denticulate sporulating loci, similar to those in Minimelanolocus (Seifert et al. 2011). Among these known species of Cacumisporium, only the type species is with available LSU and ITS sequences for molecular phylogenetic analysis. Its affinity with the teleomorph Chaetosphaeria decastyla in Chaetosphaeriaceae has been confirmed by both pure culture study and molecular phylogenic analysis (Réblová and Gams 1999). Phylogenetic analysis is needed to elucidate the relationships of these species, and this might result in reclassification of several published species. The genus Cacumisporium has been reported in China with three species, C. fusiforme, C. rugosum and C. sigmoideum. Here the type species, C. capitulatum, is added as a new record for China.
Type species: Cacumisporium tenebrosum Preuss. (= Cacumisporium capitulatum (Corda) S. Hughes; anamorph of Chaetosphaeria decastyla (Cooke) Réblová & W. Gams).
Other accepted species: Species Fungorum – search Cacumisporium.
References
Ellis MB 1976 – More dematiaceous hyphomycetes. Commonwealth Mycological Institute, Kew.
Goos RD 1969a – Conidium ontogeny in Cacumisporium capitulatum. Mycologia 61:52–56.
Goos RD 1969b – The genus Pleurothecium. Mycologia 61:1048–1053.
Kirk PM 1992 – New or interesting microfungi XVI Hyphomycetes from the British Isles. Mycotaxon 43:231–236.
Mercado Sierra Á, Castaneda-Ruiz RF 1987 – Nuevos o raros hifomicetes de Cuba I Especies de Cacumisporium, Guedea, Rhinocladium, y Veronaea. Acta Bot Cub 50:1–7.
Seifert KA, Morgan-Jones G, Gams W, Kendrick WB 2011 – The genera of Hyphomycetes. CBS biodiversity series, vol 9. CBSKNAW Fungal Biodiversity Center, Utrecht, pp 1–997.
Entry by
Wenping Wu, R&D Center, Novozymes China, No. 14 Xin Xi Lu, Shangdi Zone, Haidian District, Beijing 100085, P.R. China
Published online 18 August 2026