Placement of the genus Angelina within Rhytismatales and observations of Angelina rufescens

Abstract

Angelina rufescens is placed within the core clade of Rhytismatales (Leotiomycetes, Pezizomycotina, Ascomycota) based on analysis of LSU and mtSSU rDNA. The only species in the genus, it produces distinctive ascomata that reoccur annually on wood and on the remains of its own previous fructifications, forming dense conglomerations of interlocking longitudinally elongated apothecia with gray hymenia. Known collections and references of A. rufescens indicate that it is endemic to eastern and central United States. Morphological and cultural characters are described with notes on ascomata development. No mitospores were observed in field collections or in culture. Lectotypes are designated for Hysterium rufescens and its synonym Ascobolus conglomeratus. Angelina rufescens is illustrated here for the first time in the taxonomic literature.

• Hypoderma
• lectotypification
• Leotiomycetes
• Lewis David von Schweinitz
• Lophodermium
• mitochondrial SSU
• Nils Peter Angelin
• nuclear LSU
• ontogeny
• Rhytismataceae

Acknowledgments

Kanchi N. Gandhi for advising us on nomenclature and the staff at the Harvard University Botany Libraries provided necessary assistance. Richard Korf, Lawrence Millman and Kathie Hodge helped solve the identity of this fungus in one way or another. Emma Williams at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (PH), facilitated the loans of the Schweinitz specimens. Simona Margaritescu at the Royal Ontario Museum, ROM Fungarium, Canada (TRTC), and Scott Redhead at the National Mycological Herbarium, Canada (DAOM), supplied information on Canadian holdings of A. rufescens. Kay Fairweather for bringing this interesting fungus to our attention and for her persistence, over 5 y, in seeking a name for her find.