The teleomorph
Shipton (1979) described Calonectria camelliae Shipton from agar cultures of a small-spored species of Cylindrocladium. This Australian species had been isolated from the fruit of an unidentified rain forest tree in Queensland and was identified as C. camelliae. However, my examination of this Australian isolate proved it to be different from C. camelliae but identical with the newly described C. infestans. Both isolates produced perithecia abundantly when cultures on prune agar, potato-dextrose agar, or Sabouraud agar were grown in the light on the laboratory bench in front of the window or under ultraviolet light. Perithecia were readily produced after 8-14 days by all of numerous single-spore isolates of C. infestans from New Zealand and after water storage of cultures over a period of 6 years cultures could still produce perithecia. These occurred singly or in clusters on the agar surface and also on the aerial mycelium and on the glass walls.
The perithecia have been fully described by Shipton (1979), who placed the teleomorph in Calonectria because other, albeit large-spored, species of Cylindrocladium possess a Calonectria state. Shipton (1979) described cylindrical asci of 52-68 x 2.9-6.7 µm containing eight 1-septate ascospores measuring 6.7-10.7 x 2.6-3.8 µm. Examination of perithecia produced by his culture and by the New Zealand isolate showed that the wall is composed of relatively small cells measuring (5-)7-15(-25) µm wide. The characteristics of the asci, ascospores, and of the small cells in the perithecial wall are typical of representatives of the genus Nectria but unlike the genus Calonectria. In Calonectria the asci are broadly clavate and the perithecial wall is composed of large cells (Boesewinkel 1982). Therefore the new combination of Nectria camelliae (Shipton) Boesewinkel (basionym Calonectria camelliae Shipton, Trans. Br. Mycol. Soc. 72: 162-164. 1979) is made.