Hypoxylon hypomiltum Mont.

TELEOMORPH | CULTURES AND ANAMORPH | SPECIMENS EXAMINED | NOTES

NOTES

This fungus was originally described by Montagne (1840) as having stromatal surface color "atro-purpureum" and having interior "manifeste rubiginosum". We have examined two packets of the Leprieur collection no. 371 from the Montagne herbarium (PC). One packet contains material with fairly conspicuous coil-like ornamentation on the ascospore perispore; this is H. pelliculosum. The other packet contains material of H. anthochroum. There is a small piece of material at BPI labeled as Leprieur 371 from the Montagne herbarium which corresponds with the H. anthochroum material at PC. There is also a specimen labeled as Leprieur 371 at K which was considered by Abe (1986) as the "holotype" of H. hypomiltum. The K material is entirely different from those two packets at PC. Among these three specimens, only the H. pelliculosum material and the K material fit the Montagne protologue in having a rusty interior; it is therefore most reasonable to select the lectotype from these two specimens. Since the K material is the element studied by most mycologists, we thus select the K specimen as the lectotype of H. hypomiltum. None of these three fungi involved in the H. hypomiltum confusion have bright granules inside the stromata.

Abe (1986) rearranged several Hypoxylon taxa which he considered to have red granules inside the stromata, including H. hypomiltum, H. jecorinum, H. subgilvum, H. fendleri, H. miniatum, and H. crocopeplum. He treated H. jecorinum as a synonym of H. hypomiltum, based on his finding that the ascospore size ranges in the type materials of these two taxa at K are similar, i.e., 7-9 x 3-4.5 mm. He then used the name H. subgilvum to replace Miller's H. hypomiltum with the spore size range 9-12 x 4-6 mm. Hypoxylon fendleri and H. miniatum were reduced to synonyms of H. subgilvum also owing to their similar ascospore size ranges. In this study, each of these names is considered to represent a distinct taxon based on the cultural and anamorphic data, and to some extent on teleomorphic morphology. The exception is H. miniatum which is considered to be a synonym of H. rutilum, as treated by Miller (1961).