DEVELOPMENT AND CYTOLOGY

Rogers (1975, 1979) showed that Nemania serpens (as Hypoxylon serpens) has a haploid chromosome number of 7. Ascospores are at first uninucleate, becoming binucleate via mitosis. One of the nuclei is segregated into a cellular appendage which disintegrates as the ascospore attains its mature spore wall and dark color (Rogers 1975, 1979).

Jensen (1981) published an elegant developmental study of a Nemania (as Hypoxylon serpens). He showed definitively that ascogonia give rise to ascogenous hyphae and that the surrounding envelope gives rise to the hamathecial elements, paraphyses and pseudoparenchyma. Jensen (1981) thus clarified the development of Nemania and, concomitantly, the Xylaria-type centrum as described by Luttrell (1951).