Fungalpedia – Note 1539, Furcaspora
Furcaspora. Bonar.
Index Fungorum, Facesoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank, Fig 1
Classification: Incertae sedis, Incertae sedis, Incertae sedis, Incertae sedis, Pezizomycotina, Ascomycota, Fungi
Saprobic or parasitic on the host plant in terrestrial habitat, such as Abies concolor (Pinaceae), Eucalyptus globulus (Myrtaceae), Pinus monophylla (Pinaceae). Sexual morph: undetermined. Asexual morph: Conidiomata pale brown, stromatic, pycnidial, immersed to innate erumpent, globose to subglobose, unilocular, glabrous. Ostiole absent, rupturing surface by means of irregular splits of upper walls, and ultimately becoming wide open. Conidiomatal wall composed of thick-walled, pale brown cells of textura angularis in the exterior, gradually merging with paler coloured cells towards hymenium. Conidiophores formed from the inner layer cells of conidiomatal wall, hyaline, cylindrical or irregular, branched, septate, smooth-walled. Conidiogenous cells hyaline, holoblastic, sympodial, subcylindrical, integrated or discrete, determinate, smooth-walled, producing 1–3 conidia sympodially or synchronously from different loci at the apices. Conidia hyaline, triradiate, aseptate, smooth-walled; main axis cylindrical, with fusiform arms; each arm with a terminal extracellular filiform, tubular appendage.
Notes: Furcaspora shares hyaline, triradiate conidia with Suttoniella, but it can be distinguished from the latter by the form of conidiomata and conidiogenous cells. The differences between these two genera are discussed under Suttoniella. Nag Raj 1993) revised Furcaspora and accepted a single species in the genus. Crous et al. (2007) included molecular data for Furcaspora and introduced a new species, F. eucalypti Crous & Verkley. Furcaspora was placed in Leotiomycetes, order incertae sedis. Fresh collection of F. pinicola are needed to place Furcaspora in a natural group.
Type species: Furcaspora pinicola Bonar, Mycologia 57(3): 391 (1965).
Figure 1 – Furcaspora pinicola (redrawn from Nag Raj 1974) a Conidia. b Conidiophores, conidiogenous cells and developing conidia. c Vertical section of conidioma.
References
Li WJ, McKenZie EHC, Liu JK, Bhat DJ, Dai DQ, Caporesi E, Tian Q, Maharachcikumbura SSN, Luo ZL, Shang QJ, Zhang JF, Tangthirasunun N, Karunarathna SC, Xu JC, Hyde KD (2020) Taxonomy and phylogeny of hyaline-spored coelomycetes. Fungal Diversity 100: pages279–801.