Cryptovalsa mangrovei Abdel-Wahab & Inderb

(Fig. 10)

In Inderbitzin et al., Mycological Research 103 (12): 1628 (1999).

MATERIAL EXAMINED. — Hong Kong, New Territories, Nature Reserve, Mai Po Marshes, Mai Po mangrove, on wood test block of Kandelia candel (L.) Druce, M. A. Abdel-Wahab, 6.VIII.1998 (holo-, IMI[IMI-379746]).

DISTRIBUTION. — Hong Kong.

DESCRIPTION

Sexual morph

Saprobic. On in decorticated wood test blocks of Kandelia candel .

Ascomata. In groups of 3-8, sometimes confluent, in 1-3 rows, immersed, raising the substratum, or erumpent.

Entostroma. Effuse, a faint black line between the groups sometimes present, wood softened; a thin layer of white pulvinate fungal material sometimes present around the ascomal venter.

Ascomal venter. 250-278 µm high, 245-352 µm wide, subglobose to broadly ellipsoidal.

Necks. 208-220µm long, 180-190 µm wide,ostiolate, periphysate, comprising an outer layer of completely melanized cells, and an inner layer of less pigmented, elongate cells; singly erumpent, protruding above the level of the raised substratum; the outermost ascomata in an aggregate often bent towards the centre of the group, with four narrow furrows on the dome shaped apex.

Peridium. 10-25 µm wide, in horizontal section with an outer, layer of small, thick-walled, melanized, rounded cells, and an inner layer, up to 12 µm wide, of hyaline, elongate cells in textura angularis.

Paraphyses. Up to 3-4 µm wide, hyaline, septate, deliquescent.

Asci. 80-150 × 10-14 µm (ẍ = 115 × 12 µm, n = 20), polysporus, clavate, truncate, pedicellate; apex up to 3.5 µm thick, with a refractive subapical, non-amyloid ring at the base of an invagination of the ascus apex.

Ascospores. 5-14 × 1-3 µm (ẍ = 10 × 2 µm, n = 30), allantoid, pale yellow to pale brown.

Asexual morph

Undetermined.

NOTES

Cryptovalsa mangrovei possesses single or eutypa-like ascomata with polysporous asci (Spooner 1981) which are characteristics of the genus Cryptovalsa . Cryptovalsa mangrovei differs from C. halosarceicola and C. suaedicola by its larger ascomata, asci and ascospores, clavate asci, horizontally furrowed necks, pigmented ascospores and deliquescent paraphyses. There is no blackened zone around the ascomatal venters of C. mangrovei, which is present in C. halosarceicola and C. suaedicola (Table 4) (Spooner 1981; Inderbitzin et al. 1999). Halocryptovalsa avicenniae, comb. nov., and the novel species Hcr. salicorniae lack horizontal furrows inside their ascomatal necks and hence are distinguishable from C. mangrovei . Further taxon sampling is needed for this species to obtain appropriate molecular data to substantiate its placement within a natural classification system.