Torula fici Crous

Torula fici Crous View in CoL [as ‘ficus’], IMA Fungus 6 (1): 192 (2015)

Fig. 4 View Figure 4

Description.

Saprobic on the dead vines of Lonicera japonica Thunb. ( Caprifoliaceae ). Sexual morph: Undetermined. Asexual morph: Hyphomycetous. Colonies effuse on the natural substrate, scattered, black, clustered on substrates. Mycelium slightly immersed, septate, branched, smooth, with pale brown hyphae. Conidiophores arising from prostrate hypha, 4–6 μm wide, macronematous to semi-macronematous, mononematous, solitary, erect, thick-walled, erect, straight, or slightly flexuous, without apical branches, pale brown to brown, ellipsoid to subcylindrical, smooth, septate. Conidiogenous cells 5.5–6.5 × 4.8–5.5 μm ( x ̄ = 6 × 5 μm, n = 20), mono- to polyblastic, integrated, terminal, thick-walled, doliiform to subglobose, brown to dark brown. Conidia 8–19 × 5–7 μm ( x ̄ = 15 × 6 μm, n = 30) phragmosporous, solitary to catenate, acrogenous, pale brown, aseptate or indistinctly septate at immature stage, becoming brown to dark brown at maturity, composed of subglobose cells, apical cell often pale brown, rounded at both ends, mostly 2–4 - septate, constricted at the septa, minutely verruculose, easily separating.

Culture characteristics.

Conidia germinated on the PDA within 24 h, and germ tubes are produced from the basal cell. Colonies growing on PDA reached 35–40 mm in diam. after three weeks at 25 ° C in the dark, mycelium partly immersed to superficial, slightly effuse, hairy, with a regular edge, pink or pale brown. Colonies from above, circular with an irregular edge, white aerial mycelium slightly raised, medium dense, fluffy, filiform, spreading from the center, and hyaline mycelium at the edge; in reverse, pale brown to brown in the center, with off-white at the edge.

Material examined.

China • Sichuan Province, Chengdu City, Xindu District, Xinfan Street , 30°50'51"N, 104°4'49"E, elevation 549 m, on dead vines of Lonicera japonica ( Caprifoliaceae ), 22 July 2021, H. Z. Du, D 10 ( HUEST 24.0248 ), living culture UESTCC 24.0235 GoogleMaps .

Notes.

Torula fici was introduced by Crous et al. (2015) as a hyphomycetous asexual morph species found on Ficus religiosa in Cuba. It is a widespread species, mostly reported in China and Thailand, and has been collected from various hosts, including Ananas comosus , Chromolaena odorata , Cocos nucifera , Garcinia sp. , Magnolia grandiflora , Mangifera indica , Musa sp. , and Pandanus sp. ( Jayasiri et al. 2019; Jayawardena et al. 2022; Tian et al. 2024; Zhang et al. 2024 b). Based on the phylogenetic analysis (Fig. 1 View Figure 1 ), our collection ( UESTCC 24.0235 ) clustered with T. fici ( CBS 595.96 , KUMCC 16-0038 , KUMCC 15-0428 , and UESTCC 22.0124 ). The morphology of our collection matches well with the type material of T. fici , which is characterized by doliiform to subglobose or clavate conidiogenous cells and brown to dark brown, phragmosporous, verruculose, branched chains and septate conidia ( Crous et al. 2015). Therefore, we identified our new collection as T. fici and reported its association with the medicinal plant Lonicera japonica in Sichuan Province, China, for the first time.