Flora of New Zealand Series

Type : Trichothelium epiphyllum Müll.Arg.

Descriptions : Flora (1985: 587). See also McCarthy (2001i: 153).

Trichothelium is a mainly tropical foliicolous genus, of 40 widespread species (Kirk et al. 2001), included in the family Trichotheliaceae (McCarthy 2001i, 2001l; Eriksson et al. 2004; Pennycook & Galloway 2004; Eriksson 2005). It differs from the more speciose and widely distributed Porina in having bristle-like or fin-like outgrowths from upper parts of the perithecia (McCarthy & Kantvilas 2000c). Most species of Trichothelium are rather inconspicuous. It has been intensively studied and collected in the neotropics (Santesson 1952; Lücking 1998a), but appears to be less common and diverse in the palaeotropics (McCarthy & Kantvilas 2000c). Two putative endemic taxa were described from Nelson collections of Bill Malcolm (Malcolm & Vězda 1995c), although one of these, Trichothelium rubellum, was later transferred to Porina (Lücking 1998a), and Trichothelium nanum was recently shown to be synonymous with T. assurgens (Aptroot & Lücking 2001) which has a palaeotropical distribution. Australian taxa are discussed in McCarthy (2001i), and a list of all known species, their synonyms and geographical distribution is given in McCarthy (2003d). A key is given by Lücking (2004a: 420–424), and a key to five corticolous species by Lücking & Cáceres (2004). A recent molecular study of 28 foliicolous taxa of Porina with three species of Trichothelium showed Trichothelium (with ostiolar setae) nesting within a clade of Porina (the P. nitidula group) having non-setose perithecia (Baloch & Grube 2006). Three species, all foliicolous, are known from New Zealand.