Hymenoscyphus caudatus, a new ascomycete record for the mycobiota of Turkey

Hymenoscyphus caudatus (P. Karst.) Dennis is given as new record for the mycobiota of Turkey. The macro and micromorphological characters of the species are provided together with the localities of collection, collector numbers and the photographs related to its macro and micromorphologies.


Introduction
Hymenoscyphus Gray is a widespread genus within the family Helotiaceae (Ascomycota) with more than 800 species (Kirk et al., 2008). The members of the genus are generally characterized by their stipitate to sessile discoid apothecia; white to yellowish hymenial surface and subellipsoid, fusoid, or scutuloid ascospores. Species of the genus are normally saprophytic on plant debris, such as wood, twigs, fruits, leaves, and herbaceous stems. Though the known species are mainly reported from America, Asia and Europe, it is a cosmopolitan one.
The study aims to make a contribution to the determination of the macrofungal biodiversity of the Karaman and Turkey.

Materials and Method
Hymenoscyphus samples were collected from Yeşildere village of Karaman province. The fruit bodies were photographed at their natural habitat and notes were taken about the morphological and ecological characteristics of them. Then the specimens were carried to the fungarium and dried in an air conditioned room. Microscopic studies were performed on dried specimens under a Nikon Eclipse Ci-S trinocular light microscope. The specimens were mounted in water and Melzer reagent. The samples were identified with the help of Kimbrough and Atkinson (1972), Dumort and Carpenter (1982), Zhuang and Korf (1989), Zhuang (1995), Ellis and Ellis (1997). The collected specimens are kept at Karamanoğlu Mehmetbey University, Kamil Özdağ Science Faculty, Department of Biology, Karaman, Turkey. Macroscopic and microscopic features: Apothecia 0.5-2 mm in diameter, scutellate, whitish-cream, disc flat to concave, hymenium white to pale yellow when young, straw-yellow to pale yellow-orange when dry; stipe cylindrical, broader above and tapering slightly toward the base, concolorous with the outer surface of the receptacle, some hairy at the base (Fig. 1). Asci 100-120 × 9-12.5 μm, cylindrical to clavate, eight-spored, walls outlined blue in Melzer's reagent, especially at the apex. Paraphyses filiform, equal or slightly exceeding the asci, some branched at the base, septate (Fig. 2a). Ascospores 15-24 × 4-5.5 μm, ellipsoid, subfusoid to ovoid, hyaline, smooth, aseptate or rarely l-septate, generally with two large, irregular guttules and several smaller guttules (Fig. 2b). Hymenoscyphus caudatus grows on decaying leaves and leaf parts of many trees such as the members of Acer, Aesculus, Alnus, Betula, Castanea, Carpinus, Corylus, Crataegus, Fagus, Fraxinus, Pinus, Platanus, Populus, Prunus, Quercus, Robinia, Salix, Tilia, Ulmus, and rarely on herbaceous stem (Kimbrough and Atkinson, 1972;Ellis and Ellis, 1997;Zhuang, 1995

Discussions
Hymenoscyphus caudatus was given as new record for Turkish mycobiota as the fourteenth member of the genus Hymenoscyphus. In general, macro and micromorphology are in agreement with those given in literature.
Hymenoscyphus caudatus was reported to be common on leaf litter and grow on decaying leaves and leaf parts of deciduous trees (Kimbrough and Atkinson, 1972;Ellis and Ellis, 1997;Zhuang, 1995). Zhuang and Korf (1989) reported on roots of a grass. Beside rotting leaf litter, our samples were also collected on rotting Populus twigs.
Hymenoscyphus caudatus may easily be confused with H. hyaloexcipulus H.D. Zheng & W.Y. Zhuang in terms of morphology, but it differs from the latter species in having much narrower ectal excipular cells, and narrower ascospores (Zheng and Zhuang, 2013).