New and Interesting Records of South African Fungi, Part VIII

Descriptions of the following eight fungi isolated from various habitats are given: Ac'taztomium strumarium Rai, Tewari & Mukerji, from a leaf of Protea sp.; Phoma glomerata (Corda) Wollenw. & Hochapf. from wheat debris; Phoma glu.narum Ell. & Tracy and Phoma capitulum Pawar, Mathur & Thirumalachar from leaf litter of Acacia karroo Hayne; Phoma jolyana Pirozynski & Morgan-Jones from contaminated agar plate; Veronaea botryosa Cifferi & Montemartini, Scytali-dium lignicolum Pesante and Rhinocladiella msnsonii (Castell.) Schol-Schwarz from deteriorated canvas; Cerebella andropogonis Ces. from Lolium multiftorum Lam. spikelets.

The identity of this specimen was verified by Dr H. A. van der Aa, Baarn. Netherlands. The characters of this isolate agree closely with the description given by Boerema et al. (Persoonia 4: 53-54, 1965) and Morgan-Jones (C.M.I. Descriptions of Pathogenic Fungi and Bacteria. No. 134). Boerema (loc. cit.) pointed out that this species is strongly influenced by cultural conditions and displays wide variation in its main features, but that it is easily recognised by the characteristic chlamydospores produced in chains and resembling the conidia of Alternaria. It should be noted that typical chlamydospores are not readily observed in very young cultures and that these should not be used for identification purposes (Leudemann. Mycologia 51. 772 -780. 1959 Colonies on potato-dextrose agar slow growing and reaching a diameter of 3,5 cm in 10 days, eventually compact and spongy; aerial mycelium cottony, pure white; reverse colourless or faintly rosaceous. Hyphae hyaline, branched, up to 3,0 /m diam. Pycnidia tardily produced in small numbers, superficial or immersed in the medium, subglobose, at first light brown becoming brown to nearly black, neck incon spicuous or absent, mostly with a single ostiole, variable in size and up to 250 /xm diam. Pycnidiospores hyaline, mainly ovoid, smooth, discharged in greyishwhite opaque mass, 2 ,5-7 ,O x2,0-4,0 /xm. Specimen examined: P.U. Culture Collection, No. 71, isolated from leaf litter of Acacia karroo, Potchef stroom, Transvaal, Jan. 1964. PREM 44862 dried culture on 1,5% malt extract agar.
The identity of this specimen was confirmed by Dr G. H. Boerema, Wageningen, Netherlands.
The identity of this specimen was verified by Dr G. H. Boerema, Wageningen, Netherlands.
According to Boerema et al. (loc. cit.) this species is easily recognised by the single, more or less clavate dictyochlamydospores developing terminally or late rally on the hyphae. It is further pointed out that the size and pigmentation of the pycnidia, pycnidiospores and chlamydospores are markedly affected by the age of the cultures and by the C/N ratio of the medium. These variations have caused considerable confusion in the taxonomy of this group of fungi and should therefore be taken into account in the identification of species. This is the first record of the occurrence of this species in South Africa. -M.C.P.
The identity of this specimen was confirmed by Dr G. H. Boerema, Wageningen, Netherlands.
According to Boerema (Persoonia 5: 203, 1968) the characters of this species in vitro show wide variation but the fungus is, nevertheless, easily recog nized by the dark, beaked pycnidia, the intercalary dictyochlamydospores and the production of a dis tinct reddish (orange to red-purple) pigment. The C/N ratio of the medium affects the production of pycnidia and chlamydospores-a high ratio favouring chlamydospore production and a low ratio the forma tion of pycnidia (Boerema. Persoonia 5: 203, 1968 Colonies on malt agar slow growing, reaching a diameter of 27 mm in 12 days, velvety-granular, dark grey-olivaceous, reverse similar, no pigment diffusing into the agar. Hyphae smooth, septate, branched, with branches often at right angles and with a septum in the main axis close to the point of branching, slightly wavy with cell walls often irregular and slightly bulging, rarely straight, 2-3 /xm diam., olivaceous-grey. Conidiophores macronematous, mononematous, smooth-walled, septate, slightly wavy, olivaceous-grey, branched or unbranched, arising at right angles on trailing hyphae. often basally septate and constricted at this septum, variable in length. 55,0-300,0x2,0-3,0 /xm. Conidiogenous cells inte grated, polyblastic, restrictedly sympodial, rarely geniculate, scars small and flat, mostly determinate but rarely resumes normal growth resulting in an intercalary conidiogenous area. Conidia solitary, dry. acropleurogenous, oblong-ellipsoid to ellipsoid, rounded apically, rarely fusiform, slightly tapering basally, mostly with a definite hilum, 0-1-septate often constricted at the septa, smooth, thin-walled, olivaceous-buff, 5,0-12,0x2,0-5,0 /xm. coprophila. the only species of Sympodina. to be identical with V. botryosa. The latter as described by Cifferi & Montemartini (loc. cit.) differs from the isolate described here as well as from S. coprophila. in having club-shaped conidiophores with small sterigmata and conidia with pointed ends and no constrictions at the septa. Von Arx (personal com munication) found the present isolate to differ only slightly from the type of V. botryosa. It appears that Subramanian & Lodha's (loc. cit.) diagnosis for S. coprophila is actually more acceptable for V. botryosa than the original description by Cifferi & Montemartini (loc. cit.).
Although the conidia of V. botryosa are similar to those of V. simplex, the latter species is distinguished by its less elaborate, shorter, geniculate conidio phores with prominent protruding scars. This is the first record of the occurrence of this species in South Africa. -W.J.J.
This is the first record of the occurrence of this genus in South Africa. -W.J.J.
This isolate differs in some aspects from the descrip tion given by Schol-Schwarz (loc. cit.). The colony is not slimy, neither were the various spore types, viz Phialophora annellate-type and Cladosporium-type observed. The conidia are also larger than the 2,0-3,0 (5,5)X 1,0-1,5 (2,0) /xm reported by Schol-Schwarz (loc. cit.). However, other characteristics such as proliferation of secondary conidia and the anastomos ing of older conidia agree well with those of R. mansonii.
In an extensive study of the genus Cerebella. Langdon (loc. cit.) maintained it as a separate genus with C. andropogonis as the only species and listed 32 synonyms. Schol-Schwarz (loc. cit.), however, placed C. andropogonis in the genus Epicoccum as E. andropogonis because of similarties in conidial ontogeny. Ellis (loc. cit.) did not accept this and maintained C. andropogonis on account of its distinc tive conidial morphology and the production of the cerebriform stroma in vivo.
The isolate described here has conidial dimensions which agree with the lower limits given by Langdon (loc. cit.). Considering the variability of this genus as indicated by Langdon (loc. cit.), there should be no doubt about the identity of the isolate. It is readily distinguished from E. purpurascens (fig. 11) by the marked constrictions at the septa, the relatively smooth conidial surface and the smaller and lightercoloured conidia.
This species has been recorded in South Africa before. According to the synonyms given by Langdon