Fungalpedia – Note 3159, Helicoceras
Helicoceras Linder, Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 18: 2 (1931).
Citation when using this data: Jian Ma et al. 2024 – Fungalpedia.
Index Fungorum, Faceoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank, Fig 1.
Classification: Incertae sedis, Incertae sedis, Incertae sedis, Incertae sedis, Pezizomycotina, Ascomycota, Fungi.
Notes: Helicoceras was erected by Linder (1931b), with H. celtidis as the type species. Index Fungorum (2024) lists six species of Helicoceras. However, H. nymphaearum and H. plantaginis are now recognized as Dichotomophthoropsis nymphaearum and Taeniolella plantaginis, respectively (Linder 1931b; Ellis 1971). Currently, Helicoceras comprises four species: H. celtidis, H. indicum, H. longisporum and H. oryzae, which were found on leaves of Celtis australis, C. serotina, Saccharum officinarum, Sponias sinensi, and Trema orientalis, and seeds of Oryza sativa in America, India, Italy and Japan (Linder 1931b; Subramanian 1956; Rao 1964; Rao and Anahosur 1972). Helicoceras is characterized by short, apically inflated, terminal, septate, erect or ascending branched conidiophores, and fuscous, multi-septate, irregularly bent, strongly recurved, smooth or echinulate, shorter conidia that are occasionally diagonally or longitudinally septate, and constricted at the septa (Linder 1931b). Helicoceras shares similarities with Dichotomophthoropsis in having terminal, septate, erect, branched conidiophores, and fuscous, multi-septate, echinulate, conidia, but Dichotomophthoropsis differs from Helicoceras in producing wide conidia, lacking diagonal or longitudinal septa, and are inflated in the middle conidia (Linder 1931b; Ellis 1976).
Type species: Helicoceras celtidis (Biv.) Linder, Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 18: 3 (1931).
Other accepted species: Species Fungorum – search Helicoceras.
Figure 1 – (a) Goosiella helicospora (redrawn from Seifert et al. (2011)); (b) Helicoceras celtidis (redrawn from Linder (1931b)); (c) Helicofilia madrasensis (redrawn from Seifert et al. (2011)); (d) Helicogoosia paradoxa redrawn from (Seifert et al. (2011)).
References
Ellis MB. 1971 – Dematiaceous hyphomycetes. Commonwealth Mycological Institute, Kew.
Linder DH. 1931b – The genus Helicoceras. Annals of the Missouri botanical Garden 18(1):1–8.
Rao VG, Anahosur KH. 1972 – Some interesting Fungi Imperfecti from India. Sydowia 25:51–53.
Subramanian CV. 1956 – Hyphomycetes-I. Journal of the Indian Botanical Society 35(1):53–91.
Entry by
Jian Ma, School of Food and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Guizhou Institute of Technology, Guiyang 550003, P.R. China, Center of Excellence in Fungal Research, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai 57100, Thailand, School of Science, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai, 57100, Thailand.
Published online 10 September 2026