Stenocybe Nyl. ex Körb.
Type : Stenocybe major Nyl. ex Körb.
Description : Thallus saprophytic or parasitic. Ascomata apothecia, well-stalked, black to dark-brownish or olivaceous. Capitulum obovoid. Excipulum well-developed, consisting of dark-brown, periclinally arranged hyphae and with a porrectulate and in some species thickened margin. Hymenium covered by a thin tissue consisting of interwoven hyphae. Stalk of dark-brown, periclinal hyphae. Asci cylindrical, 70–250 μm long. Mature asci with uniformly thickened wall at apex, persisting until ascospores mature. Mazedium absent. Ascospores 3–7-septate, ellipsoidal to subfusiform, 12–75 × 4–21 μm, uniseriate in ascus. Ascospore wall rather thick to very thick, uniformly to unevenly thickened and with angular lumina, dark-brown, smooth, apical parts often paler. No demonstrable chemistry.
Stenocybe is included in the family Mycocaliciaceae (Eriksson et al. 2004; Pennycook & Galloway 2004; Eriksson 2005), together with Chaenothecopsis, Mycocalicium and Phaeocalicium. Currently 10 species are recognised (Tibell & Ryan 2004f), occurring in warm to cool-temperate habitats of both Northern and Southern hemispheres (Tibell 1984b, 1987). Stenocybe occurs in humid and rather shaded situations as a parasite or saprophyte on vascular plants or hepatics. Species are generally restricted to a single species or genus of host. One species is endemic to New Zealand and is the only species known from the Southern Hemisphere (Tibell 1987).
