Fungalpedia – Note 1795, Rhizinaceae
Rhizinaceae Bonord.
Index Fungorum, Facesoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank.
Classification: Pezizales, Pezizomycetidae,, Pezizomycetes, Pezizomycotina, Ascomycota, Fungi
Taxa are saprobic on soil and usually found in burned forest soil attached to dead coniferous seedlings. Rhizina species causes root rot and damping off of conifer seedlings (Hartig 1900; Brooks 1910; Weir 1915). Germination of dormant ascospores in the soil is activated by the heat of fire (Jalaluddin 1967a, b). They produce large disc shaped apothecia. Hymenium consist of asci, paraphyses and hymenial setae (Bonorden 1851). Phymatotrichopsis omnivora is an asexual fungus recorded within this family but with no known sexual stage. They occasionally form mitosporic botryoblastospores on epigeous spore mats (Uppalapati et al. 2010). Recent studies are Uppalapati et al. (2010), Iryna (2014) and Arif et al (2014). In this paper, we illustrate Rhizina undulata as a representative of the family Lyda 1978). Phymatotrichopsis omnivora causes root rot disease especially of cotton plants. In vitro conidial formation is very rare. However, it frequently produces spore mats on the soil surface in moist, shaded areas in field crops and orchards (Cheraghian 2016).
Type genus: Rhizina Fr., Observ. mycol. (Havniae) 1: 161 (1815).
References
Bonorden HF 1851 – Handbuch der allgemeinen Mykologie. E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart, pp 1–336.
Brooks FT 1910 – Rhizina undulata. Q J For 4:308–309.
Hartig R 1900 – Lehrbuch der Pflanzenkrankheiten. Verlag von Julius Springer, Berlin.
Jalaluddin M 1967a – Studies on Rhizina undulata. I. Mycelial growth and ascospore germination. Trans Br Mycol Soc 50:449–459.
Jalaluddin M 1967b – Studies on Rhizina undulata. II. Observations and experiments in East Anglian plantations. Trans Br Mycol Soc 50:461–472.
Weir JR 1915 – Observations on Rhizina inflata. J Agric Res 4:93–97.