Xylaria lindericola Hai X. Ma & X.Y. Pan, 2022

Pan, Xiao-Yan, Song, Zi-Kun, Qu, Zhi, Liu, Tie-Dong & Ma, Hai-Xia, 2022, Three new Xylaria species (Xylariaceae, Xylariales) on fallen leaves from Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park, MycoKeys 86, pp. 47-63 : 47

Xylaria lindericola Hai X. Ma & X.Y. Pan sp. nov.

Figure 3

Diagnosis.

Differs from X. sicula f. major by its subglobose stromata without a long sterile apex, larger ascospores and host plant. Differs from X. hypsipoda by its black stromata, glabrous stipes and smaller apical apparatus.

Typification.

China. Hainan Province, Lingshui County, Diaoluoshan Natural Reserve, on fallen leaves of Lindera robusta ( Lauraceae ), 31 December 2020, Haixia Ma (holotype, FCATAS 852).

Etymology.

" Xylaria lindericola " refers to the growth on leaves of Lindera robusta .

Teleomorph.

Stromata upright or prostrate, solitary to cespitose, unbranched or branched once or more at stipe, 3-26 cm total length; fertile part subglobose on long filiform stipes, 0.1-0.4 cm diam., the stipe 3-25 cm long × 0.1-1 mm diam., glabrous, finely longitudinally striate, the base slightly swollen; surface roughened by wrinkles and barely exposes perithecial contours. External black, interior white. Texture soft. Perithecia subglobose, 300-550 µm diam. Ostioles black, papillate. Asci with eight ascospores in uniseriate manner, cylindrical, 105-165 µm total length, the spore-bearing parts 65-115 µm long × 7.5-10.5 µm broad, the stipes 25-65 µm long, with apical apparatus bluing in Melzer’s reagent, tubular to urn-shaped, 3.9-5.5 µm high × 3-5 µm broad. Ascospores brown, unicellular, ellipsoid-inequilateral, with slightly narrowly rounded ends, aberrant ascospores with strongly pinched or beaked ends, smooth, (12.5-)13.5-15.5(-18) × (7-) 7.5-8.5 (-9.5) µm (M = 14.8 × 8 µm, n=60), with straight germ slit spore-length, without sheath or appendages visible in India ink.

Additional specimen examined.

China. Hainan Province, Lingshui County, Diaoluoshan Natural Reserve, on fallen leaves of Lindera robusta , 31 December 2020, Haixia Ma (FCATAS 853).

Remarks.

Xylaria lindericola is distinguished by its subglobose fertile part of stroma on a long filiform stipe and growing on fallen leaves of Lindera robusta . The species is somewhat similar to X. sicula f. major in morphology of stromatal fertile part. However, X. sicula f. major has stromata with long sterile apex, slightly smaller ascospores 9-13(-15) × (3-) 4.5-6 (-7) µm and grows on dead Olea leaves ( Ciccarone 1947; Graniti 1959; Fournier 2014). In the phylogenetic tree, X. lindericola formed a fully supported clade with X. sicula f. major (Figure 1 ).

Xylaria hypsipoda Massee is similar to X. lindericola by sharing globose stromata and ascospores dimensions, but differs in having stromata with whitish scales, hairy stipes and urn-shaped, slightly larger apical apparatus 5-8 µm high × 2.9-5 µm broad ( Rogers et al. 1987).

Xylaria ficicola resembles X. lindericola in stromatal morphology, but differs in having strongly exposed perithecial mounds of stromatal surface, larger ascospores (16-) 17.5-21(-22.7) × 6.5-8.5 µm with conspicuous hyaline noncellular appendage and grows on fallen leaves and petioles of Ficus auriculata ( Ma et al. 2011). Xylaria heloidea Penz. & Sacc. from Indonesia is somewhat similar to X. lindericola in stromatal morphology, but the former has obconical, convex stromatal top, larger ascospores (14.5-) 15.5-18(-19) × (5-)5.5-6.5(-7) µm (16.7 × 6.1 µm), with a hyaline sheath swelling at both ends to form non-cellular appendages and grows on fallen fruits, twigs, petioles, and leaves of various plants ( Ju et al. 2018).

Xylaria comosa (Mont.) Fr. and X. clusiae K.F. Rodrigues, J.D. Rogers & Samuels are also somewhat similar to X. lindericola in stromatal morphology. However, X. comosa has larger ascospores (21)-26-40 × 7-11 µm and larger apical ring 10.5 µm high × 7.5 µm broad ( Dennis 1956) and X. clusiae has smaller stromata 1-3.5 cm, ascospores broadly ovoida1 to nearly globose (11.6-)12.8-16.7(-18) × 8-15 µm, with colorless appendage at one end ( Samuels and Rogerson 1990).

Figures

Figure 1. Phylogenetic tree of Xylaria based on multigene alignment of ITS-TUB-RPB 2 in the Bayesian analysis. Bayesian posterior probabilities (≥ 0.95, before the slash markers) and RaxML bootstrap values (≥ 50, after the slash markers) are shown. Different clades are indicated as coloured blocks.

Figure 3. Xylaria lindericola (FCATAS 852, holotype) a, b stromata on leaves c fertile part of stroma d stromatal surface e section through stroma, showing perithecia f ascal apical ring and ascospores with beaked ends in Melzer's reagent g ascus and ascal apical ring in Melzer's reagent h ascus in water i, j ascospores in water k, l ascospore in Melzer's reagent m ascospore in India ink n ascospore in 1 % SDS showing germ slit. Scale bars: 1.5 cm (a, b); 0.2 mm (c-e); 10 µm (f-n).