PERZIA TRISEPTATA GEN. ET SP. NOV. (ASCOMYCOTA INCERTAE SEDIS) FROM XERIC CONIFEROUS BARK IN FRANCE AND MONTENEGRO.

A new genus and species is described for a non-lichenised discomycete collected on xeric bark of corticated branches and standing trunks of Picea abies in southern France and of Pinus heldreichii in Montenegro. The fungus has broadly sessile, roundish apothecia erumpent singly through the host's periderm by exposing a black margin and grey disc. The paraphyses are apically ramified, and the inamyloid asci are especially apically thick-walled in the dead state and contain eight rather large, 3-septate spores surrounded by a distinct, thick gel sheath. Sequences of rDNA extracted from apothecia surprisingly nested in the Lecanoromycetes though unresolved and distant to any group for which molecular data were available. The fungus shows morphological similarities with the genus Exarmidium (Xylariales), for which rDNA data were not available, or the Rhytismatales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]