Fungalpedia – Note 3014, Cylindrocephalum
Cylindrocephalum. Bonord.
Citation when using this data: Wenping Wu & Yongzhao Diao. 2023– Fungalpedia.
Index Fungorum, Facesoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank, Fig 1
Classification: Pezizellaceae, Helotiales, Leotiomycetidae, Leotiomycetes, Pezizomycotina, Ascomycota, Fungi
Colonies effuse, brown to dark brown, hairy. Mycelium partly immersed and partly superficial, composed of pale brown to medium brown, smooth, septate and branched hyphae. Anamorph: Stroma absent or present, composing of dark brown and irregular cells. Setae absent or present, cylindrical to clavate, septate, brown, fertile or sterile. Conidiophores arising from superficial hyphae or aggregated cells, scattered or aggregated at the base, erect, straight or slightly curved, simple, reduced or well-developed, composed of a basal stalk and a terminal phialide, obclavate, lageniform, subcylindrical, pale brown to dark brown, septate, smooth or verruculose, terminating in a phialidic conidiogenous cell. Conidiogenous cells lageniform, obclavate, urceolate or subcylindrical, pale brown to dark brown, smooth or verruculose, composed of a venter and a collarette; transition from venter to collarette gradual or abrupt. Conidia endogenous, extruded in short or long and loosing chains, cylindrical, straight, hyaline, septate, smooth, with rounded or truncated bases, often provided with basal marginal frill or rarely fringes of wall material, slightly rounded at the apex. Teleomorph: Unknown.
Ecology/substrate/host: Saprobe on dead branches and rotten wood.
Geographical distribution: Widely distributed.
Notes: In the phylogenetical analyses, five chalara-like fungi with septate conidia, similar to species of Nagrajchalara (Crous et al. 2021), were clustered together as a strongly supported monophyletic clade distinct from Nagrajchalara clade. A new generic name was needed to accommodate them. Based on literature review and supported by molecular phylogeny and pure culture study, the generic name Cylindrocephalum was reinstated for these five chalara-like fungi. Under the genus Chalara s. lat., six generic synonyms, Cylindrocephalum, Thielaviopsis, Stilbochalara, Chalaropsis, Excioconidium and Hugehsiella were included by Nag Raj and Kendrick (1975). Among them, the type species of Thielaviopsis, Stilbochalara, Chalaropsis, and Hughesiella were congeneric and now reclassified as Thielaviopsis in Ceratocystidaceae (Microascales). This made Cylindrocephalum (1851) and Excioconidium (1925) as the only potential choices. Both genera were with typical chalara-like phialides consisting of a venter and a collarettes with deeply seated conidiogenous loci, and septate conidia (Hughes 1958; Nag Raj and Kendrick 1975). Excioconidium was known with only the type species E. cibotti, and no living strain or molecular sequence data were available, thus its phylogenetic relationship with other chalara-like fungi remains to be studied. Morphologically Excioconidium cibotti produces 7-septate conidia with thick cell wall, which differs from those in those five species. The type species of Cylindrocephalum, C. aureum, was represented with two strains in the Chalara aurea clade. Based on these analyses, the genus Cylindrocephalum is reinstated as the generic name for these six species.
Morphologically these five species were hardly distinguishable from Neochalara and Nagrajchalara. However, the living cultures of all these five species of Cylindrocephalum produced orange-colored pigment diffused into agar plate on PDA, which could be used to distinguish the genus from Nagrajchalara. The living cultures of many species of Nagrajchalara were also studied and they usually did not produce orange-colored pigment on PDA. Based on the phylogenetic analyses, a total of five species were accepted in the genus. Morphologically they were variable in setae, conidiophores, phialides and conidia. Conidiophores in this genus are well-developed with multiseptate basal stalk or reduced to one-celled basal stalk with a terminal phialide. Conidia of these species are always cylindrical or short-cylindrical, with obtuse apex and truncated or obtuse base. Basal frills of conidia are often seen from these species (Nag Raj and Kendrick 1975).
Type species: Cylindrocephalum aureum (Corda) Bonord., Handb. Allgem. Mykol. (Stuttgart): 103 (1851)
Other accepted species: Species Fungorum – search Cylindrocephalum.
Figure 1 – Cylindrocephalum aureum (Wu16169). a–p, t–y Conidiophores and phialidic conidiogenous cells. q–s Conidia. Scale bar: 10 μm for a–p; 5 μm for q–y.
References
Entry by
Wenping Wu, R&D Center, Novozymes China, No. 14 Xin Xi Lu, Shangdi Zone, Haidian District, Beijing 100085, People’s Republic of China
Published online 1 September 2026