Nigrograna

Nigrograna thymi Mapook, Camporesi & K.D. Hyde, in Hyde et al., Fungal Diversity 87: 68 (2017)

Index Fungorum number: IF 552958; Facesofungi number: FoF 03119

Etymology: name reflects the host genus Thymus, from which this species was isolated.

Holotype: MFLU 17-0497

Saprobic on dead aerial stem of Thymus oenipontanus Heinr. Braun. Sexual morph: Ascomata 430–460 μm high × 295–390 μm diameter (x̄ = 450 × 330 μm, n = 5), immersed to erumpent through host tissue, solitary or scattered, coriaceous, obpyriform, brown to dark brown. Ostiolar neck protruding, with hyaline periphyses. Peridium (25–)35–55 lm wide, comprising light brown cells of textura angularis. Hamathecium comprising 1–2 μm wide, cylindrical to filiform, septate, branched, pseudoparaphyses, embedded in mucilaginous matrix. Asci 90–94(–98) × 8–11 μm (x̄ = 93 × 10 μm, n = 10), 8-spored, bitunicate, cylindrical to broadly filiform, with small ocular chamber. Ascospores 24–26 × 5.5–6.5 μm (x̄ = 25 × 6 μm, n = 10), overlapping, broadly fusiform to inequilateral, 4–5-septate, widest at the middle cell, hyaline when immature, becoming brown to dark brown at maturity, slightly constricted at the septum. Asexual morph: Undetermined.

Material examined: ITALY, Forlì-Cesena Province, Passo delle Forche—Galeata, on dead aerial stem of Thymus oenipontanus (Lamiaceae), 7 April 2014, E. Camporesi (MFLU 17-0497, holotype), ex-type living culture MFLUCC 14-1096.

GenBank numbers: ITS: KY775576, LSU: KY775573, SSU: KY775574, TEF1: KY775578.

             Notes: Nigrograna thymi was collected from a dead aerial stem of Thymus oenipontanus. Phylogenetic analysis places our collection in Nigrogranaceae (Jaklitsch and Voglmayr 2016) and groups within Nigrograna (Hyde et al.2017). However, N. thymi is distinct in having ascospores with 4–5-septa.