Parmulariales » Parmulariaceae

Aldona

Aldona Racib., Parasit. Alg. Pilze Java’s (Jakarta) 1: 19 (1900).

Index Fungorum number: IF 115; Facesoffungi number: FoF 00309, 4 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2022), no molecular data available.

Parasitic on the upper and lower surface causing reddish-brown leaf spots visible from both sides of the leaf. Sexual morph: Ascomata gregarious, semi-immersed to erumpent, black, linear, radial or star-shaped, branching, coriaceous, shiny, opening by longitudinal slits. Peridium composed of amorphous black tissue, base thin composed of brown cells of textura angularis. Hamathecium of dark brown to hyaline, branching, pseudoparaphyses. Asci 8-spored, bitunicate, clavate to cylindrical, with a relatively long pedicel, apically rounded with an ocular chamber. Ascospores elongate-clavate, upper cells larger and wider, basal cells short and narrow, hyaline, trans-septate, constricted at the septa, especially between the second and third cells from the apex, wall smooth. Asexual morph: Conidiomata solitary to gregarious, black, shiny, carbonaceous, globose to subglobose or irregular, between and beneath the ascomata, hard to remove from leaf surface. Peridium comprising 2 layers, outer layer thick and composed of darkly pigmented cells, inner layer composed of hyaline to pale brown cells of textura angularis. Conidiophores forming from the inner cell walls. Conidiogenous cells hyaline, integrated. Conidia aseptate, fusiform, hyaline, tapering at both ends, smooth-walled (adapted from Tian et al. 2015).

 Type species: Aldona stella-nigra Racib.

Notes: Aldona is characterised by gregarious, semi-immersed to erumpent, black ascomata, bitunicate, clavate to cylindrical asci, and elongate-clavate ascospores. The asexual morph is characterised by solitary to gregarious, black, shiny conidiomata, hyaline, integrated conidiogenous cells and aseptate, fusiform, hyaline conidia. Raciborski (1900) placed Aldona in Hysteriaceae. Höhnel (1917) transferred Aldona to Phacidiaceae. Bisby (1923) and Zogg (1962) agreed that Aldona does not belong to Hysteriaceae. Nannfeldt (1932) excluded Aldona from Phacidiaceae since the genus has bitunicate asci while members of Phacidiaceae have unitunicate asci. Teodora (1937) reported Aldona from living leaves of Pterocarpus sp. in Philippines. Müller and Arx (1962) provided a key to species and referred Aldona to Dothioraceae. Müller and Patil (1973) accepted three species A. stella-nigra, A. americana and A. minima, all collected from living leaves of Pterocarpus species. Sivanesan and Sinha (1989) re-studied Aldona and synonymized it under Aldonata based on morphology. Tian et al. (2016) examined the isotype specimen of Aldona (MFLU 14-0011) and considered Aldona and Aldonata as two distinct genera. Aldona differs from Aldonata in having smaller locules and transversely septate ascospores while Aldonata has muriform ascospores. Inácio and Cannon (2008) and Hyde et al. (2013) accepted Aldona in Parmulariaceae. Molecular data is lacking. Fresh collections with DNA sequence data are needed to confirm the systematic placement of Aldona.

 

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