taxonomic status

ooke (1886), when describing this as a new species, reported the host as Weinmannia racemosa; however, examination of the type specimen suggests that the host is in fact a Pseudopanax species. Aptroot (2006) reported from the type specimen at Kew an ascomycete with 0-septate ascospores typical of Glomerella, and referred Cooke’s species to this genus, despite an illustration on the packet clearly showing the 1-septate ascospores typical of Sphaerella sensu Cooke (=Mycospherella in a modern sense). There are several species of fungi in an isotype specimen (PDD 71522), including what appear to be an anamorphic Botryosphaeriaceae, an inoperculate discomycete, a Parmulariaceae-like fungus (referred to Asterina in Cooke’s original annotation of the specimen), and a Mycosphaerella species. The Glomerella reported by Aptroot (2006) was not seen on the PDD isotype material, perhaps missing from this portion of the specimen by chance. Assuming that the Mycosphaerella on PDD 71522 represents S. weinmanniae, this has the appearance of Mycosphaerella species associated with the recently fallen leaves of many hosts, with large numbers of gregarious, small, globose, dark-walled, erumpent pseudothecia developing in discrete patches on the fallen leaves. Whether these represent a single fungus or a set of distinct host-specialised species is not known, but observations from other hosts suggest that this fungus will occur commonly on fallen Pseudopanax leaves. [PJR]