Fungalpedia – Note 1544, Godronia

Index Fungorum, Facesoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank, Fig 1

Classification: Godroniaceae, Helotiales, Leotiomycetidae, Leotiomycetes, Pezizomycotina, Ascomycota, Fungi

Saprobic or parasitic on the host plant. The sexual morph is characterised by apothecium which are dark olivaceous brown to black, paler at margin, yellowish to whitish, erumpent, gregarious and occasionally single, globose to subglobose, becoming urceolate, narrowed below, slightly furfuraceous to glabrous and striate. The hymenium is light gray, concave to plane, and more fleshy than the excipulum. The tissue of the basal stroma is constituted by yellowish to brownish, interwoven, ascending, very thick-walled hyphae of textura epidermoidea. The medullary excipulum is constituted by dark brown to black, irregularly shaped cells of textural angularis in a zone subtending the hymenium and extending around it. The ectal excipulum is is constituted by yellowish, thick-walled hyphae of textura oblita, and the outer rows is darker and thinner. Paraphyses are hyaline, septate, simple or branched, filiform, and slightly swollen at the tip but not forming an epithecium. Asci are 8-spored, cylindrical to cylindric-clavate, pore blue with iodine, tapered below to a stalk. Ascospores are septate, overlapping, 0–7-septate, filiform, straight or slightly curved, hyaline, and parallel to intertwined in the ascus (Groves 1965). The asexual morph is characterised by superficial conidiomata, which are pycnidial, from immersed to erumpent, dark brown to black, scattered to gregarious or confuent, unilocular, glabrous, obpyriform or globose to oval, ostiolate. The ostiole is papillate, circular, single and located in the center. Conidiomatal wall is comprised of dark brown to hyaline cells of textura oblita to textura angularis with thick wall. Conidiophores are formed from the inner cells of the conidiomata wall, which are hyaline, septate, smooth-walled, cylindrical, and branched at base and above. Conidiogenous cells are enteroblastic, phialidic, determinate, scattered to gregarious, irregular or subcylindrical to lageniform, hyaline and smooth-walled. Conidia are hyaline, smooth-walled, eguttulate, cylindrical or fusiform, base truncate and narrow and apex obtuse (Mougeot 1846, Sutton 1980, Nag Raj & DiCosmo 1981a, b, Li et al. 2020).

Notes: Godronia was introduced by Mougeot (1846) based on G. muehlenbeckii the type species. Most Godronia species appear to be specific to the host genera (Groves 1965). Groves (1965) regarded Topospora uberiformis as the sexual morph of G. uberiformis. Konrad et al. (2007) provided more evidence for connection between Topospora and Godronia based on SSU sequence data of T. myrtilli and G. cassandrae. However, there is no link between the type species of Topospora and Godronia. Therefore the re-collection and epitypiftion of the type species of both sexual and asexual morph are necessary to provide molecular data as molecular studies are necessary to clarify the taxonomy of Godronia. Currently, there are 86 species listed in Godronia in MycoBank (September 2024) and 91 species listed in Godronia in Species Fungorum (September 2024), but we accept only 30 species in Godronia based on Wijayawardene et al. (2022). There are 80 sequence data available for Godronia in GenBank (September 2024). The updated taxonomic treatment of this genus is Godroniaceae, in Helotiales, Leotiomycetida, (Leotiomycetes) (Wijayawardene et al. 2022).

Type species: Godronia uberiformis J.W. Groves, Canad. J. Bot. 43: 1245 (1965)

Figure 1 – Godronia uberiformis (asexual morph, redrawn from Nag Raj & DiCosmo 1981a) a Vertical section of conidioma. b Conidiophores, conidiogenous cells and developing conidia. c Conidia. Scale bars: a = 50 μm; b–c = 10 μm. (Originally published in Li et al. (2020) and republished with authority)