Fungalpedia – Note 2375, Ionopezia
Ionopezia. Van Vooren.
Citation when using this data: Yuan HS et al. 2020 – Fungalpedia, Ascomycota.
Index Fungorum, Facesoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank, Figs 1,2
Classification: Pezizaceae, Pezizales, Pezizomycetidae, Pezizomycetes, Pezizomycotina, Ascomycota, Fungi
Ascomata apothecial, solitary or in small groups, comparatively small-sized, epigeous, shortly stipitate, mostly regularly circular from the top view, cupulate when young, then shallowly saucer-shaped to plate-shaped, hymenial surface greyish violet to vividly violet, matte, not wrinkled, margin upright at first, then flattened, beset with whitish floccose granules on pale greyish violet ground, excipular surface concolourous with the margin, beset with less floccose granules. On section hymenium creamy grey, subhymenium differentiated as a thin line due to dark violet pigmentation, flesh creamy grey, not exuding latex, stipe base without visible subiculum. Asci cylindrical to slightly ventricose, hyaline, apex subtruncate-rounded, protruding above paraphysis tips at full maturity, 8-spored, base tapered, pleurorhynchous, arising from croziers, operculum apical, functional, only faintly predelimited before opening, barely thicker than surrounding wall, not lenticular, not encircled by indentation ring, periascal amyloid mucus thin, film-like, evenly thick throughout; in Lugol’s solution periascal mucus amyloid, reaction of medium strength in upper ascus area, intensity gradually decreasing towards the base. Ascospores hyaline, fusiform to naviform, with subacute poles, slightly asymmetrical, 1-celled, smooth under immersion lens when in water mount, unstained longitudinal striae visible in Cotton Blue, perispore not cyanophilic or not present, thin-walled, without sheath when spores are ejected; sporoplasm multiguttulate, lipid content maximal with 2–3 large lipid bodies and many smaller ones, uninucleate, nucleus and nucleolus not contrasted nor stained in Lugol’s solution, de Bary bubbles absent in anhydrous media. Paraphyses cylindrical, apically obtuse, ±straight, not branching in the upper part, embedded in hyaline epithecial exudate, containing non-refractive KOH-soluble and HCl-inert coarse deep purplish violet granules and paraphysal ectochroic plaques, apical cell infrequently contains a few small moderately refractive hyaline granules, otherwise content non-refractive, Lugol’s solution provokes formation of refractive sienna to brownish purple granules in paraphysis cytoplasm. Marginal texture composed of compact perihymenial area with thin-walled, hyaline narrowly prismatic cells, encrusted with dark purple to violet plaques, and of proximal/distal margin mostly occupied with thin-walled, hyaline cell chains, forming hyphoid fascicles embedded in gel; texture not cyanophilous. Subhymenium composed of textura angularis-epidermoidea, cells thin-walled and hyaline, richly beset by non-refractive KOH-soluble and HCl-inert coarse deep purplish violet granules and ectochroic plaques, the same as on the top of the hymenium. Medullary excipulum with upper part composed of textura ellipsoidea-epidermoidea, with cells bearing scattered dark purple to violet-purple plaques, and lower part of textura intricata-porrecta to intricata-prismatica running ±parallel with the surface, principally without any pigment or refractive intercellular content; texture not cyanophilous. Ectal excipulum of two layers: discontinuous cortex composed of cell aggregates of textura globulosa–angularis, with individual cells globose, subangular to shortly clavate, walls hyaline thickened, without any internal refractive or pigment cell inclusions, intercellular hyaline gel matrix conspicuous; continuous part composed of textura angularis-prismatica, cell chains directed ±perpendicularly to the surface, cells ellipsoid, clavate to prismatic, hyaline, thin-walled, refractive or pigment cell inclusions absent.
Ecology: Terricolous, directly on forest soil, sometimes with mosses, on river banks and pathway edges, inhabiting biomes from colline to arcto-alpine zone of Northern Hemisphere, fruitbodies appear from spring to autumn.
Notes: We establish the new genus Ionopezia for a single species, Peziza gerardii Cooke. In all phylogenies done so far (e.g. Hansen et al. 2005; this paper), P. gerardii forms a well-supported lineage with Marcelleina Brumm., Korf & Rifai as a sister group to the rest of the Pezizaceae. Due to the lack of amyloid reaction of the asci Marcelleina was not considered as a member of the Pezizaceae for a long time (e.g. Hawksworth et al. 1995; Eriksson et al. 2001) until the first phylogenetic analyses (Hansen 2001). Our observations based on fresh material of ‘Peziza gerardii’ show that there are numerous unique traits that are synapomorphic either to the newly established genus Ionopezia or that are shared with the sister genus Marcelleina. The non-refractive deep purplish violet pigments, heavily deposited in intercellular spaces of the subhymenial layer and/or ectochroic, adpressed as patches to a cell wall, irreversibly soluble in KOH without any colour reaction and inert in HCl, is a unique character shared only by the generea Ionopezia and Marcelleina. This type of character is mostly present as cell wall patches in the latter genus. The same type of pigment is richly embedded also in the epithecial amorphous layer, marginal plaques, and to a lesser extent in the intercellular spaces of the medullar layer. The ascospore wall and the ornamentation in Ionopezia are the characters that distinguish it most within the Pezizaceae. The wall is not cyanophilous and the perispore might be absent, while the surface is finely longitudinally wrinkled. Similar spore wall properties are found in some Morchella species. Furthermore, ascospores in Ionopezia are fusiform to naviculate and filled with numerous lipid bodies, a combination of characters not found in other species of Pezizaceae. The structure of the apothecial margin is also diagnostic. It has a sharp outline in section, and is nearly entirely composed of hyphoid fascicles (cylindrical to narrowly clavate) embedded in abundant gel plaques. Another distinctive character attributable only to the genus Ionopezia is the appearance of refractive sienna to brownish purple granules in the cytoplasm when Lugol’s solution is added to a tap water mount (F. These refractive, hyaline to yellowish granules or guttules, readily visible in a tap water mount that turn to rusty brown or brownish red in Lugol’s solution were determined to be glycogene accumulations by Baral (1992). The former phenomenon differs by the fact that nothing is discernable in the cytoplasm before Lugol’s solution is applied. There is also a difference in colour of these two types of cell inclusions. It is also worth mentioning that the fine structure of the ascus wall and its cytochemistry are also aberrant in the Pezizaceae, especially concerning the epigeous members. The operculum of Ionopezia is not at all lentiform, but is encircled only by a slight, barely visible optical discontinuation in the wall structure. This character is shared by Marcelleina. The periascal mucus is very thin and film-like, continuing through the entire ascus length demonstrating weak amyloidity all over the surface, corresponding to the IIIa type as defined by Hansen (2001). The overall cyanophobic property of the apothecial texture is shared only by few species in the Pezizaceae known to the authors (e.g. Hansenopezia, Peziza simplex Dougoud & Moyne, etc.).
Peziza gerardii Cooke was established by Cooke (1875b) who revised Gerard’s material of P. violacea W.R. Gerard (1873, in litt.) which is a nomen illegitimum (non P. violacea Pers. 1794). Cooke’s description (Cooke 1875a, 1875b) includes spore dimensions 32–35 × 8–9 µm which does not agree with Cooke’s drawing (Cooke 1874–1875) of spores inside the ascus drawn to scale. Thus, from his drawing spores are 27–32 × 8.5–9.5 µm. The original collection of Gerard was restudied by Pfister (1978) who gives a description of P. gerardii based both on Gerard’s collection and the collection of von Höhnel’s from the herbarium at FH, giving spores as 28–32(–35) × 7–9 µm. On the other hand, Van Vooren (2009) describes two collections having a spore range of (23–)24–32 × 9–10.2 µm and one with even smaller spores (17–)18–21 × 8–10 µm. According to today’s perception this species varies greatly in the length of the spores. Below we give a description of Ionopezia gerardii based on samples collected in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Type species: Ionopezia gerardii (Cooke) Matočec, I. Kušan & Jadan.
Other accepted species: Species Fungorum – search Ionopezia.
Figure 1 – Ionopezia gerardii. a-f Ascomata. g Vertical median section through apothecium. h Perihymenium and proximal margin. i Terminal cells on extreme margin. j Medullary excipulum. k Contact zone between subhymenium and medullary excipulum. l Terminal cells of ectal excipulum with Lugol induced bodies. m Subhymenium. n Cell aggregates on ectal excipulum. o Ectal excipulum. g–k, m–o In water mount (*), l In Lugol’s solution (*). g In dark field, a–f, h–o In bright field. a, e, f–o From CNF 2/10798, b, d From CNF 2/7450, c From CNF 2/9431. Photo: N. Matočec and I. Kušan. Scale bars: a, d = 5 mm, c = 2 mm, b, e, f = 1 mm, g = 100 µm, h, n, o = 50 µm, i–m = 10 µm. Asterisk (*) denotes living material.
Figure 2 – Ionopezia gerardii. a–c Living mature asci with paraphyses. d Ascus bases with ascogenous cells. e-g Paraphyses with epithecial gel. h, i Paraphyses with Lugol induced granules. j, k Ascospores. l Terminal cells on ectal excipulum. m Margin. a, b, d–g, j In water mount (*), c, h, i In Lugol’s solution (*), k-m In Cotton Blue (†). All from CNF 2/10798. Photo: N. Matočec and I. Kušan. Scale bars: a–m = 10 µm. Asterisk (*) denotes living material.
References
Cooke MC (1875a) Mycographia, seu Icones Fungorum. Figures of fungi from all parts of the world. Vol. 1. Discomycetes, Part 1. London, William and Norgate. 44 p. + 20 pl
Cooke MC (1875b) Pezizae Americanae. Hedwigia 14: 81–85
Cooke MC (1875b) Pezizae Americanae. Hedwigia 14: 81–85
Eriksson OE, Baral H-O, Currah RS, Hansen K, Kurtzman CP, Rambold G, Laessøe T (2001) Outline of Ascomycota – 2001. Myconet 7: 1–88
Persoon CH (1794) Dispositio methodica fungorum. Neues Magazin fu¨r die Botanik 1:81–128
Entry by
Hai-Sheng Yuan, CAS Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110164, People’s Republic of China, University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, People’s Republic of China
Published online 30 April 2026