CONIDIAL STATE: Acremonium sp.

Mycelium white, forming a ring around the base of each perithecium, not visible apart from the perithecia. Perithecia solitary or in caespitose clusters of up to 10, orange, globose, 260-370 µm diam., becoming collabent when dry, not changing colour in 3% potassium hydroxide. Perithecial wall 50-80 µm wide. Surface view: cells obscured by the hyphal covering. Longitudinal section: outer region 40-60 µm wide, cells prosenchymatous to loose and hyphal, walls c. 3 µm thick, cells becoming progressively more compacted toward the interior of the perithecial wall. Inner region 15-20 µm wide; cells elliptic, 5-7 µm long x 2-3 µm wide, walls 1-2 µm thick and pigmented; cells becoming progressively more flattened, thin-walled, and non-pigmented toward the interior. Hyphal covering white, composed of branched septate, spinulose, straight, flexuous, 2-3-µm-wide hyphae with walls 0.5-1.0 µm thick, growing outwardly from the surface of the perithecial wall to a length of 40-60 µm, many free ends visible. Perithecial papilla lacking; ostiolar canal formed by narrow hyphal elements arising from the inner region of the perithecial wall, periphysate. Asci clavate, 100-110 x (8-) 11-17 µm, 8-spored; apices rounded, simple; bases rounded; ascospores biseriate, forming throughout the length. Ascospores fusiform, straight or slightly curved, 26-32 x 6-7 (-8) µm, equally 2-celled, two to three drops in each cell, striate, non-constricted at the septum, hyaline.

CHARACTERISTICS IN CULTURE CMD: Ascospores germinating in high percentage overnight, 3-4 germ tubes arising laterally from each ascospore. Colonies 2.5-3 cm diam., translucent, pale pink, aerial mycelium sparse, margin undulate, non-aromatic, medium non-pigmented. ME: 1 cm diam., opaque, white; aerial mycelium as loose, erect, outwardly directed hyphae; margin undulate, non-aromatic, medium non-pigmented. OA: 2.5 cm diam., opaque, pale pink, aerial mycelium compacted, margin slightly undulate, non-aromatic, medium non-pigmented. WAS: 2.5 cm diam., transparent, white, aerial mycelium sparse, loose, forming indistinct concentric rings, margin entire, non-aromatic, medium non-pigmented. Phialophores forming only on CMD from the surface of the medium and from the aerial mycelium, monophialidic unbranched or branched once, 4-6 septate, straight, coarsely spinulose, 60-90 µm long, 3 µm wide basally, subtending hypha 3 µm wide. A solitary, coarsely spinulose phialide constituting the terminal (23-) 35-40 (-50) µm of each phialophore, 2 µm wide at the unflared tip. Conidial production sparse after 2 weeks, but abundant after 6 weeks. Phialoconidia ellipsoidal, 6.5-9.5 (-11) x (2-) 3-3.5 (-4) µm, unicellular, hyaline, with or without a protuberant, flattened, basal abscission scar. Arising in basipetal succession and held in a single, terminal, hyaline drop of liquid.