Fungalpedia – Note 828, Nitschkia
Nitschkia G.H. Otth ex P. Karst.
Citation when using this data: Huang SK et al. 2021 (in prep.) – Fungalpedia, Ascomycota.
Index Fungorum, Facesoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank, Fig. 1
Classification: Nitschkiaceae, Coronophorales, Hypocreomycetidae, Sordariomycetes, Pezizomycotina, Ascomycota, Fungi
Saprobic on wood. Sexual morph: Subiculum absent or composed of brown to dark brown, septate, branched, sinuous hyphae with metallic iridescence. Ascomata perithecial or without an external opening, gregarious, erumpent or superficial, sitting on or in a subiculum, carbonaceous or coriaceous, black, turbinate, cupuliform to subglobose, tuberculate, the apex collapsing when dry, with periphyses inside of the inconspicuous ostioles or lacking ostioles. Peridium composed of membranaceous, brown to hyaline cells of textura angularis to textura prismatica, sometimes Munk pores present. Paraphyses absent or unbranched, septate. Asci 4- to 8-spored, unitunicate, clavate to cylindrical, apex blunt or rounded, apical ring inconspicuous, with long pedicel, evanescent. Ascospores bi-seriate to overlapping, hyaline to brown, aseptate or septate, allantoid to subcylindrical, sometimes slightly curved, smooth-walled, mostly with guttules. Asexual morph: Undetermined (adapted from Fitzpatrick 1923, Subramanian & Sekar 1990).
Notes – Fuckel (1870b) introduced the generic name Nitschkia and described N. fuckelii based on Sphaeria cupularis Fries. Subsequently, Karsten (1873) stated that S. cupularis Fries is illegitimate as it has an earlier homonym S. cupularis Pers.; thus, he clarified the genus Nitschkia and introduced N. cupularis as generic type. This genus is characterized by turbinate ascomata, clavate asci and allantoid ascospores and currently includes 58 species (Hyde et al. 2020e, Index Fungorum 2021). Molecular data is available for five species, N. calyculus, N. grevillii, N. meniscoidea, N. pezizoidea, N. tetraspora (Huhndorf et al. 2004b, Mugambi & Huhndorf 2010). In this study, N. calyculus, N. grevillii and N. tetraspora clustered as a sister clade of Acanthonitschkea (73%ML/0.95BY) and N. meniscoidea nests in Nitschkiaceae (100%ML/1.00BY), but N. pezizoidea is basal to Bertiaceae (62%ML).
Type species: Nitschkia cupularis (Pers.) P. Karst., Bidr. Känn. Finl. Nat. Folk 23: 81 (1873).
Other accepted species: Species Fungorum – search Nitschkia.
Figure 1 – Nitschkia cupularis: a, c, e, h, m–n, t–u (S-F117662); b, d, f–g, i–l, o–s (BR-5020096960571). a–b Material. c–d Ascomata erumpent through the bark of host. e, g Ascoma cross section. f Munk pores (arrow). h Ostiole-like structure without an external opening.
i Peridium. j–n Asci. o Paraphyses. p–u Ascospores. Scale bars: c–d = 1 mm, g = 200 µm, e = 100 µm, h–i = 50 µm, f, j–o = 20 µm, p–u = 5 µm.
References
Fitzpatrick HM. 1923 – Monograph of the Nitschkieae. Mycologia 15(1), 23–44.
Karsten PA. 1873 – Mycologia fennica. Pars secunda. Pyrenomycetes. Bidrag till Kännedom av Finlands Natur och Folk 23, 1–252.
Subramanian CV, Sekar G. 1990 – Coronophorales from India-a monograph. Kavaka 18, 19–90.
Entry by
Shi-Ke Huang, State Key Laboratory Breeding Base of Green Pesticide and Agricultural Bioengineering, Key Laboratory of Green Pesticide and Agricultural Bioengineering, Ministry of Education, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, China, The Engineering Research Center of Southwest Bio-Pharmaceutical Resources, Ministry of Education, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, Guizhou Province, 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, The Mushroom Research Centre, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, China
Published online 14 September 2021