Flora of New Zealand Series

Type : * Cornutispora limaciformis Piroz.

Description : Conidiomata pycnidia, arising singly, subglobose, almost translucent to pale-brown, immersed to almost superficial, opening by an irregular disintegration of the upper part of the pycnidial wall; walls made up of thin-walled pseudoparenchymatous cells, textura angularis. Conidiophores arising from inner wall of pycnidial cavity, irregularly branched, septate, smooth-walled, colourless, conidia forming acropleurogenously. Conidiogenous cells polyblastic, integrated, indeterminate, broader towards apices, colourless, with 1–4 apical denticles. Conidia arising singly, triradiate with a subcylindrical stem, two apical branches diverging at an obtuse angle, and a distinctly narrowed foot-cell, colourless, simple, smooth walled.

Cornutispora, included in the Anamorphic Ascomycota (Eriksson et al. 2003; Pennycook & Galloway 2004), comprises four species worldwide (Kirk et al. 2001; Knoph 2004; Diederich 2004e), of which two are recorded from New Zealand. The conidia of this genus are very characteristic (Hawksworth 1976, 1981; Gierl & Kalb 1993; Nag Raj 1993; Etayo 2002; Punithalingam 2003; Knoph 2004). It appears to have no close relatives in the Coelomycetes (Hawksworth 1976, 1981).