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Abstract
A discomycete collected in western Sichuan, China, is morphologically intermediate between Cudonia and Spathularia. The fungus has a bright yellow capitate ascigerous head, a white, ridged stalk, and a well-developed membrane covering the whole ascoma. The asci, ascospores, and paraphyses are similar to those of Cudonia and Spathularia. Based on morphology and DNA sequence analysis, a new species, Cudonia sichuanensis, is reported. Cudonia and Spathularia are closely related to members of Rhytismataceae, as has been suggested previously. The similarity of ascoma and ascospore development between these two genera and Lophodermium (Rhytismataceae) is discussed.
We are indebted to R. Korf, D. Pfister, K. O'Donnell and J. Platt for their valuable comments and suggestions, P. R. Johnston for providing some important references, and I. Sun in the Department of Foreign Languages, Clark University, for providing the Latin diagnosis. Thanks are also due to the members of the 1997–1998 field expeditions, including D. Boufford, M. Donoghue, Y. Jia, R. Ree, and Z.-L. Yang, for their encouragement and support, which made the field and herbarium work possible. This research was supported by National Science Foundation grants DEB-9903835 (to D. Hibbett) and DEB-9705795 (to M. Donoghue), and a grant from the Chinese Academy of Sciences to Z. Wang.