Parasitic Ascomycetes and Deuteromycetes from the Transvaal

Abstract

A new genus of Sphaeropsidaceae, Oncostroma Batista & Marasas, and the type species of the genus, O. toddaliae Batista & Marasas, are described. Descriptions are also given of six new species of Ascomycetes, i.e. Brasiliomyces entadae Marasas & Rabie, Uncinula sparsichaeta Marasas, Thyriopsis sphaerospora Marasas, Microcyclus halleriae Marasas & Rabie, Phyllachora ehrhartae Marasas and Trichopeltu.m africanu.m Batista & Marasas. Two new combinations, Trichopeltum carissae (Doidge) Marasas and Trichopeltum kentaniensis (Doidge) Marasas, are made. An annotated account is given of collections of foliicolous Ascomycetes and Deuteromycetes from the indigenous forests of the Transvaal Province of the Republic of South Africa. A list of 93 species of fungi, belonging to 54 genera and found on 66 host genera, is presented. Of these 16 are new records for South Africa while 22 represent new fungus-host relationships. The genera Asterina, Meliola and Phyllachora appear to be the most common genera of foliicolous Ascomycetes in the northern Transvaal. Members of the Chaetothyriales and the Micropeltaceae also appear to be more numerous than indicated by previous workers. The fact that seven new species have been encountered in a relatively small collection, is an indication of how incomplete our knowledge of the. South African fungus flora is. Undoubtedly many more new species remain to be discovered in the indigenous forests of the northern Transvaal.