Fungalpedia – Note 2853, Paraceratocladium
Paraceratocladium. R.F. Castañeda.
Citation when using this data: Wenping W et al. 2022 – Fungalpedia.
Index Fungorum, Facesoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank, Fig 1
Classification: Incertae sedis, Incertae sedis, Incertae sedis, Incertae sedis, Pezizomycotina, Ascomycota, Fungi
Colonies effuse, brown to dark brown, hairy. Mycelium partly immersed and partly superficial, composed of brown, septate, smooth-walled hyphae. Teleomorph: unknown. Anamorph: Setae solitary, unbranched, cylindrical, erect, straight, or flexuous, smooth or verruculose, septate. Conidiophores irregularly branched, septate, flexuous, ascendant, adhering and twining around the setae, smooth-walled, pale brown, with intercalary conidiogenous cells. Conidiogenous cells monophialidic or polyphialidic, mostly intercalary, lageniform, ampulliform; collarette conspicuous, pale brown, funnel-shaped. Conidia in dry or slimy head, aciculate, or falcate, narrowly fusoid, aseptate or septate, hyaline, smooth, thin-walled.
Ecology/Substrate/Host: Saprobe on decaying plant material, including leaves of tree and culm of grass.
Geographical distribution: Brazil, China and Cuba. Probably widely distributed in subtropical and tropical areas.
Description and illustration: Castañeda-Ruiz (1987); Seifert et al. (2011).
Notes: Paraceratocladium was erected by Castañeda-Ruiz (1987) with two species, P. silvestre and P. polysetosum. Both species were found colonizing plant debris from Cuba. The genus was characterized by hyphaelike conidiophores which arise from the substrate and entwine on dematiaceous, erect setae, monophialidic conidiogenous cells with a conspicuous collarette, and 1-septate conidia (Castañeda-Ruiz 1987; McKenzie and Hyde 1997; Dulymamode et al. 1998; Whitton et al. 2001). The most closely related genus is Ceratocladium but can be easily distinguished from the latter genus by its conspicuous collarette and septate conidia (Carmichael et al. 1980; Seifert et al. 2011).
Four additional species, including P. bacilliformis Calduch, Gene, Stichigel & Guarro on decaying rotten twigs in Brazil, P. malayasianum Goh & K.D. Hyde found on submerged wood in Malaysia, P. seychellarum found on decaying leaves of Pandanus seychellarum in Seychelles, and P. triseptata occurring on leaves of Pandanus palustris in Mauritius, have been included into the genus (Dulymamode et al. 1998; Goh and Hyde 2000; Whitton et al. 2001; Calduch et al. 2002). Morphologically all these fungi producing setae or setiform conidiophores, monophialidic or polyphialidic conidiogenous cells with funnel-shaped collarettes, and hyaline, aseptate or septate conidia, but differ in morphology of setae, conidiophores and conidiogenous cells (Pirozynski 1968; Castañeda- Ruiz 1987; Kuthubutheen and Nawawi 1987, 1994a,b,c; McKenzie and Hyde 1997; Dulymamode et al. 1998; Whitton et al. 2001; Seifert et al. 2011). Paraceratocladium triseptata differs from the rest species of the genus by its polyblastic conidiogenous cells and 3-septate conidia. The other species can be distinguished by their conidial morphology (Castañeda-Ruiz 1987; Calduch et al. 2002). Key to accepted species was provided by Goh and Hyde (2000) and Whitton et al. (2001).
Two species, P. silvestre and P. polysetosum, were found from China by us. The living strains of both species were obtained by single spore isolation, and both LSU and ITS sequences were also obtained from them. In our phylogenetic analysis, these two species are placed in one big clade together with Cryptophiale, Cryptophialoidea and Paracryptophiale, however the two species are not congeneric. The genus name Paraceratocladiella is introduced to accommodate P. polysetosum. Morphologically P. silvestre produces simple setae, ascendant conidiophores without spike-like structure, and hyaline, 1-septate, aciculate conidia (26–29 × 2–3 μm); while in P. polysetosum, the setae are branched with several secondary branches, the ascendant conidiophores with spike– like structure, and hyaline, aseptate, cylindrical conidia with slightly swollen and rounded ends (16–18 × 1.5–2.2 μm).
Paraceratocladium seychellarum resembles P. polysetosum in branched setae, ascendant conidiophores with spike-like structure, intercalary phialidic conidiogenous cells, and hyaline and aseptate conidia with rounded ends (Whitton et al. 2011). The other three known species under the genus Paraceratocladium, including P. bacilliforme, P. malaysianum, P. triseptata are morphologically similar to P. silvestre, but remain to be studied for their phylogenetic relationship.
Type species: Paraceratocladium silvestre R.F. Castañeda, Fungi Cubenses II (La Habana): 9 (1987)
Other accepted species: Species Fungorum – search Paraceratocladium.
Figure 1 – Paraceratocladium silvestre (Wu17503). a–d Setae with conidiophores. e–l Part of setae and conidiophores bearing intercalary conidiogenous cells with funnel-shaped collarettes. m–q Conidia. Scale bar: a–c 20 μm, d–e 10 μm, f–q 5 μm.
References
Castaneda-Ruiz RF 1987 – Fungi Cubenses II. Ciudad de la Habana: Instituto de Investigaciones Fundamentales en Agricultura Tropical “Alejandro de Humboldt”.
McKenzie EHC, Hyde KD 1997 – Microfungi on Pandanaceae. In: Hyde KD (ed) Biodiversity of tropical microfungi. Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong, pp 157–177.
Pirozynski KA 1968 – Cryptophiale, a new genus of hyphomycetes. Can J Bot 46:1123–1127.
Entry by
Wenping Wu, R&D Center, Novozymes China, No. 14 Xin Xi Lu, Shangdi Zone, Haidian District, Beijing 100085, People’s Republic of China
Published online 3 August 2026