Chlorociboria daliensis C.J.Y. Li, K.D. Hyde & Q. Zhao, 2022

Li, Cui-Jin-Yi, Chethana, K. W. Thilini, Hyde, Kevin D. & Zhao, Qi, 2022, Phylogeny and morphology reveal a new species of Chlorociboria (Chlorociboriaceae, Leotiomycetes) from southwestern China, Phytotaxa 554 (2), pp. 122-134 : 127-130

Chlorociboria daliensis C.J.Y. Li, K.D. Hyde & Q. Zhao , sp. nov.

Index Fungorum number: IF559487; Facesoffungi Number: FoF 10695; Fig. 3 . and Fig. 4 .

Etymology: The specific epithet refers to the locality from where the type species was collected.

Saprobic on dead, decorticated wood. Sexual morph: Apothecia 1–2 mm wide × 0.5–2 mm high (x = 1.5 × 1.2 mm, n = 20) when dry, scattered, superficial. Disc flat and circular with light bluish-green (25B6) or faience blue (24C7) when fresh, mostly pale yellowish-green (27A4) with jungle green (25F5) patches, green or dark green (26F6-26F8) with white powder and bright blue receptacle when dry. Margins concolorous to the receptacle, slightly curl inward towards the disc. Receptacle wider than the stem, mainly dark green (25F8) nearly black, sometimes bright bluishgreen (25A8-25C8) when dry, pustulate, usually vertically rugose, glabrous. Stem 0.1–0.2 mm wide × 0.1–0.4 mm long, short and broad, dark green. Hymenium 70–130 μm, hyaline or pale green with irregular green patches. Ectal excipulum 36–80 μm thick, elements oriented at a high angle to receptacle surface, comprising textura angularis or textura prismatica cells of 4–9 μm long × 2–7 μm wide with 1–2 μm thick wall, uneven coloring of excipular walls vary from myrtle green (25F8) to hyaline, gelatinous, dark olive-yellow in 5% KOH. Medullary excipulum 70–170 μm thick, hyaline cells of textura intricata, hyphae 2–4 μm wide, non-gelatinous. Subhymenium not obvious. Tomentum hyphae mostly absent, sometimes present when the receptacle bright blue, 23–30 μm long × 2.3–2.6 μm wide, coiling, roughed, thick-walled. Paraphyses 1–3 μm (x = 2 μm, n = 35) wide, filiform, tapering slightly at base, rounded apex, 2–3-septate, branched at base, middle and top, scarcely extending beyond the asci. Asci 76–94 × 5–7 μm (x = 86 × 6 μm, n = 80), 8–spored, cylindric or subclavate, tapering to subtruncate base, thickened wall at apex, amyloid apical pore in Melzer’s reagent. Ascospores (6.3–)9.8–12.7(–14.1) × (2.5–)2.6–3.8(–4.1) μm (x = 11.0 × 3.3 μm, n = 100), Q = (1.9–)2.9–4.1(–4.7) μm, Q m = 3.4 ± 0.4 μm, overlapping uniseriate, elongate to ellipsoidal, hyaline, slightly asymmetrical, in side view slightly flattened on one side, tapering to narrowly rounded ends, thin-walled, smooth, aseptate with bipolar guttules. Asexual morph: Undetermined.

Culture characteristics:—Colonies growing on PDA medium, reaching 16 mm diam. in 6 weeks at 20 ℃, filamentous form, umbonate elevation, fimbriate margin, rough and glistening on the surface, green mycelia with white margin and orange center in the front view, reverse view dark green, white at the margin, center dark saffron yellow; producing yellow pigments on PDA, producing red pigments on MEA, no sporulation.

Material examined:— CHINA, Yunnan Province, Dali City , Eryuan County, altitude 2600m, on dead, decorticated wood, 26 July 2021, Cuijinyi Li, LCJY-203 ( HKAS 122863 , holotype), ex-type living culture (KUNCC 22-10733); ibid., 27 July 2021, on hard decayed wood, LCJY-220 ( HKAS 122864 , paratype); ibid., 25 July 2021, on soft decayed wood, FM21-118 ( HKAS 122865 , paratype) .

Notes:—The distinctive characteristics of C. daliensis are light bluish-green or faience blue disc and dark green to black receptacle when fresh, pale yellowish-green with jungle green patches or dark green disc and dark blue receptacle when dry, branched paraphyses, 76–94 × 5–7 μm asci with J+ apical ring in Melzer’s reagent and 9.8–12.7 × 2.6–3.8 μm, elongate to ellipsoidal ascospores. Tomentum hyphae are almost absent. Such traits are very similar to those of C. duriligna and C. poutoensis .

However, the disc of C. duriligna is pale to dark blue-green when fresh, off-white to translucent blue-green when dry, tomentum hyphae are shorter and wider (10–20 × 3.5–5 μm vs. 23–30 × 2.3–2.6 μm) and paraphyses are unbranched ( Johnston & Park 2005). Chlorociboria poutoensis is slightly greenish when fresh, bright yellow to orange when dry, and has a thin ectal excipulum (35–45 μm vs. 36–80 μm). Furthermore, the paraphyses are unbranched, the asci and ascospores of C. poutoensis are larger (95–120 × 8–9 μm and 13.5–15 × 3.5–4 μm, respectively) compared to C. daliensis (77–94 × 5–7 μm and 9.8–12.7 × 2.6–3.8 μm) ( Johnston & Park 2005, Ren & Zhuang 2014).

Phylogenetically, C. daliensis forms a sister group with C. poutoensis ( Fig. 1 ) in the Chlorociboria sensu stricto with 74% ML bootstrap support, 63% MP bootstrap support and 0.74 Bayesian probability. The pairwise homoplasy index (PHI) value resulted in 1.0, indicating no significant genetic recombination between them and confirming that they are different species ( Fig. 2 ). Based on the macroscopic and microscopic morphological characteristics, we provided a taxonomic key of all valid species of Chlorociboria .

Figures

FIGURE 1. Maximum likelihood tree based on a combined dataset of nLSU and ITS sequences, showing the phylogenetic position of Chlorociboria daliensis. The MP bootstrap values (ML-BP) equal to or higher than 50%, ML bootstrap proportions (ML-BP) equal to or higher than 70% and Bayesian posterior proportions (BI-PP) equal to or higher than 0.90 are shown above the branches on the phylogenetic tree. Newly generated sequences are shown in blue. Ex-types are shown in bold black.

FIGURE 2. The results of the pairwise homoplasy index (PHI) test for closely related species of Chlorociboria daliensis using LogDet transformation. PHI test results (Φw) <0.05 indicate significant recombination within the dataset.

FIGURE 3. Chlorociboria daliensis (HKAS 122863, holotype) a–c Fresh ascomata on the wood. d–f Dry ascomata on the wood. (HKAS 122863, holotype) g–j Dry ascomata on the wood. (HKAS 122864, paratype) k Vertical section of ascomata. l–m Tomentum hyphae. (HKAS 122864, paratype) n Ectal excipulum. o Medullary excipulum. Scale bars d = 700 μm, e =500 μm, f = 600 μm, g–h = 400 μm, i = 700 μm. j = 600 μm, l–m = 15 μm, n–o = 50 μm.

FIGURE 4. Chlorociboria daliensis (HKAS 122863, holotype) a–c Paraphyses. d–f Asci. g–jAsci in Meltzer’s reagent. k–m Ascospores. n Germinated ascospore. o Colonies on PDA. Scale bars a–j = 40 μm k–m = 5 μm, n = 10 μm.