Search

This proposal is a supplement to Prop. 1536 (Braun, Ritschel & Schubert in Taxon 51: 557. 2002) to conserve the generic name Fusicladium Bonord. against Spilocaea Fr. (Hyphomycetes, anamorphs of the ascomycetous genus Venturia Sace and some allied genera of Venturiaceae E. M?ll. & Arx ex M. E. Barr). Braun & al. (I.e.) discussed the reasons for the proposal to conserve the well-known, larger (about 40 recognised species) genus Fusicladium, contain ing numerous economically important plant diseases, against the less known, smaller (only seven species) genus Spilocaea in detail. The earlier Prop. 1536 has been recom mended for support by the Committee for Fungi (Gams, Taxon 54: 520-522). Cycloconium Castagne has hardly been used since it was published, and was a largely forgotten name before Hughes (Canad. J. Bot. 31: 564. 1953) transferred C. oleagineum Castagne, the type of this generic name, to Spilocaea. In doing so, he reduced Cycloconium to syn onymy under Spilocaea. Since Fusicladium, described in 1851, is antedated by Cycloconium, introduced in 1845, the latter name threatens the use of Fusicladium nom. cons, prop. (incl. Pollaccia Bald. & Cif. and Spilocaea). Hence, it is recommended that the name Cycloconium be added to the list of names over which Fusicladium is conserved.

Members of the ascomycetous genus Venturia Sacc. and some allied genera of Venturiaceae E. M11ll. & Arx ex M. E. Barr produced anamorphs that so far are classified in the hyphomycetous genera Fusicladium, Pollaccia Baldacci & Cif. and Spilocaea. Monographic studies in these genera, including light and scanning electron microscopic as well as molecular (PCR) examinations have recently been finished (Schubert, Taxonomische Revision der Gattung Fusicladium (Hyphomycetes, Venturia-Anamorphen), Diplom-Arbeit, Martin-Luther-Universitit Halle: 1-136. 2001; Ritschel, Taxonomische Revision der Gattungen Pollaccia und Spilocaea (Hyphomycetes, Venturia-Anamorphen), Diplom-Arbeit, Martin-Luther-Universitit Halle: 1-88. 2001). They suggest that the separation of these anamorphic genera of Venturia is not tenable since the conidiogenesis and structure of the conidiogenous loci are uniform. They are only discriminated by differences in the mode of proliferation of the conidiogenous cells, which are sympodial in Fusicladium and percurrent in Pollaccia and Spilocaea. Like the case with the anamorphs of Mycosphaerella Johanson [Mycosphaerellaceae Lindau] (Crous & al. in Stud. Mycol. 45: 107-121. 2000), this conidiogenous feature, in our opinion, is no longer suitable for the discrimination of the genera concerned. Recent molecular examinations clearly show that Venturia is a monophyletic unit that cannot be separated into smaller groups correlated with these anamorph genera. Thus, it is inevitable that these genera be merged. Spilocaea is the earliest legitimate name for the genus in its new expanded circumscription (Schubert, op. cit.). Most anamorphs of Venturia have been classified in Fusicladium, which comprises, according to our present monographic studies, about 40 recognised species, whereas Spilocaea, as previously defined, only comprises seven species. Numerous species of Venturia with Fusicladium anamorphs cause economically important plant diseases, e.g., V carpophila E. E. Fisher [anam. F carpophilum (Thiim.) Oudem.], V cerasi Aderh. [anam. F cerasi (Rabenh.) Erikss.] and V pyrina Aderh. [anam. F pyrorum (Lib.) Fuckel] (Deighton in Mycol. Pap. 112: 1-80. 1967. Barr in Canad. J. Bot. 46: 799-864. 1968. Ellis, Dematiaceous Hyphomycetes: 271-273. 1971. Ellis, More Dematiaceous Hyphomycetes: 237-240. 1976. Sivanesan in Biblioth. Mycol. 59: 1-139. 1977. Sivanesan, The Bitunicate Ascomycetes and their anamorphs: 604-623. 1984). Hughes (in Canad. J. Bot. 31: 565-573. 1953) reintroduced the name Spilocaea for Fusicladium-like hyphomycetes with percurrent conidiogenous cells. Before 1953, Venturia anamorphs were usually referred to as Fusicladium (e.g., Saccardo, Syll. Fung. 4: 345-347. 1886. Lindau, Pilze Deutschl., Fungi imperf.: 774-790. 1907. Vassiljevsky & Karakulin, Parazitnye nesovershennye griby I: 193-208. 1937), including Spilocaea pomi, the type of Spilocaea, which was transferred to Fusicladium by Lind (Danish Fungi: 521. 1913). Therefore, to avoid the introduction of 40 new combinations and to maintain the traditional use of this generic name, which includes numerous names of important plant diseases, we propose conservation of Fusicladium against Spilocaea.