Fungalpedia – Note 2851, Paragaeumannomyces
Paragaeumannomyces. Matsush.
Citation when using this data: Wenping W et al. 2022 – Fungalpedia.
Index Fungorum, Facesoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank, Fig 1
Classification: Chaetosphaeriaceae, Chaetosphaeriales, Sordariomycetidae, Sordariomycetes, Pezizomycotina, Ascomycota, Fungi
Colonies effuse, pale brown, sparse. Teleomorph: Ascomata perithecial, non-stromatic, superficial, subglobose to conical, solitary, in small groups or aggregated, ranging from white, yellow-white, light fawn-grey, ginger-brown, reddish-brown, russet to dark brown, papillate, glabrous or setose, setae dark brown, acute, opaque, scattered over entire ascoma and/or clustered around the ostiole, centrum sometimes pink to pale red. Ostiole periphysate. Ascomatal wall three-layered. Paraphyses persistent. Asci unitunicate, 8-spored, cylindrical-fusiform, stipitate, apex with a non-amyloid apical annulus. Ascospores asymmetrical, cylindrical-filiform, slightly tapering towards the basal end, multiseptate, hyaline, occasionally light pink, with negative or positive dextrinoid reaction in Melzer’s reagent. Anamorph: Setae sterile, simple, erect, straight, dark brown to blackish, thick-walled, smooth, septate, tapered gradually towards the acute to pointed apices, with inflated base. Conidiophores solitary or aggregated in groups, cylindrical, erect, brown, septate, unbranched, reduced to a few supporting cells. Conidiogenous cells monophialidic, obclavate or broadly lageniform, doliiform, subglobose, brown, with an apical opening; collarettes conspicuously flared and cup-shaped. Conidia globose, subglobose, subangular to triangular, conical to pyramidal, unicellular, hyaline, furnished with several appendages formed simultaneously about the crown (For teleomorph, adapted from Réblová et al. 2020).
Ecology/Substrate/Host: Saprobe on dead plant material.
Geographical distribution: Broadly distributed (Réblová et al. (2020).
Description and illustration: Nawawi and Kuthubutheen (1990); Matsushima (2001); Wu and McKenzie (2003); Huhndorf and Fernández (2005); Réblová et al. (2020). Notes: Based on morphological and phylogenetic analysis, Paragaeumannomyces was proposed to accommodate the morphologically and phylogenetically well-delimited group of chaetosphaeriaceous fungi (14 species) with scolecospore ascospores and Obeliospora-like anamorph (Réblová et al. 2020). Members of Paragaeumannomyces display a wide geographical distribution pattern; they have a predominantly pantropical distribution in Central America and Asia but were also encountered in the subtropical and temperate climate zones of Europe, China, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand and North America (Huhndorf and Fernández 2005; Réblová et al. 2020).
Our phylogenetic analysis shows that Obeliospora minima is closely related to all 14 species of
Paragaeumannomyces Matsush., as emended by Réblová et al. (2020). This brought our attention on the teleomorph and anamorph connections between Chaetosphaeria raciborskii and related species with scolecosporous ascospores by Huhndorf and Fernández (2005). In that study, they described the Craspedodidymum-like anamorph for several species with scolecosporous ascospore, including Chaetosphaeria ellisii (Barr.) Huhndorf & F.A. Fernández, C. lapaziana, C. panamensis, C. raciborskii, and C. rubicunda. The so-called Craspedodidymum-like anamorphs from these species in pure culture produce simple phialidic conidiogenous cell on hyphae or dark brown conidiophore, flask-shaped to obclavate phialides with flared or cupshaped collarettes, and globose, subglobose or triangular conidia with or without elongate setulae. In C. raciborskii,
the dark-colored setae were also observed. All these characters are very similar to those described in Obeliospora species (Kuthubutheen and Nawawi 1990, 1994; Wu and McKenzie, 2003; Cantillo-Pérez et al. 2017). The very similar conidiophores, conidiogenous cells and conidia are also reported from the Thailand strain of P. panamensis by Perera et al. (2016). Paragaeumannomyces guttulatus, a recently described and asexually typified species from China, fits well to the concept of Obeliospora (Zhang et al. 2022). Combined with morphology and molecular analysis, it is clear that Obeliospora and Paragaeumannomyces are congeneric. Although Obeliospora represents an earlier name for these fungi, we recommend using Paragaeumannomyces to avoid too many changes of names. Obeliospora was erected by Nawawi and Kuthubutheen (1990) for a single dematiaceous hyphomycete species, O. basispira, colonizing submerged decaying wood in a freshwater stream. The genus is characterized by presence of subulate setae; mononematous, solitary or grouped, pigmented conidiophores; terminate, integrated, monophialidic, doliiform conidiogenous cells ending in conspicuously flared, cup-shaped collarettes; and acrogenous, semi-endogenous, hyaline, globose to subglobose phialoconidia furnished with several non-septate, filiform appendages formed simultaneously about the crown. Obeliospora basispira, O. microappendiculata, O. minima, O. nitida and O. triappendiculata are the only known species described so far in this genus (Nawawi and
Kuthubutheen 1990, 1994; Wu and McKenzie, 2003).
Figure 1 – Paragaeumannomyces asetulus (Wu12131, holotype). a–j, m, n Conidia. k, l, o–w Conidiogenous cells arising from superficial hyphae or 1–2 supporting cells. s Setae. Scale bar: 5 μm.
Type species: Paragaeumannomyces sphaerocellularis Matsush. [as ‘Paragauemannomyces’], Matsush. Mycol. Mem. 10: 156 (2003) [2001]
Other accepted species: Species Fungorum – search Paragaeumannomyces.
References
Matsushima T (2003) 2001 – Matsushima mycological memoirs 10. Matsushima Fungus Collection, Kobe.
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