Daldinia cahuchucosa (Whalley & Watling) M. Stadler & Laessoe, comb. nov., MycoBank MB807746.
Etymology. From the Carib Indian word "cahuchu", "rubbery".
Basionym: Versiomyces cahuchucosus Whalley & Watling, Notes R. bot. Gdn Edinb. 45(2). 401. 1989 [1988].
Holotypus: Australia: Queensland, Brisbane, Boobara National Park, wood of Eucalyptus, R. Watling 10838 (E).
Selected illustrations: Whalley & Watling (1998), fig. 1 (stroma and ascospores of the type specimen).
Known distribution/host preference of stromata: Monotypic, from tropical Australia; on Eucalyptus.
Teleomorph: Stroma cerebriform to iregularly pulvinate, subsessile, 3 x 2 x 1.5 cm, surface wrinkled, lacking perithecial outlines, blackish and somewhat varnished (but said to be reddish brown when collected fresh), with dull reddish brown granules immediately beneath surface, with KOH-extractable pigments Dark Livid (80); tissue between perithecia dark brown, pithy to woody; tissue below perithecial layer essentially homogeneous, woody, very hard to cut, black except for the presence of two whitish to cream coloured peripheral concentric zones (0.2 mm thick), which are separated by a dark band, immediately beneath perithecial layer; rubbery, but covered by a vertically zonate, greyish white striation, radiating out in a fan-like fashion from the base to the periphery, as also observed in some specimens of D. lloydii. Ostioles umbilicate to slightly papillate. Perithecia elongate ellipsoid, 0.8-1 x 0.5-0.7 mm. Asci fragmentary, p. sp. 90-100 x 8-10 [micro]m, with discoid amyloid apical apparatus 0.5-0.75 x 3-5.4 [micro]m. Ascospores dark brown, ellipsoid, almost equilateral to slightly inequilateral, with broadly rounded ends, with straight germ slit spore length, 13-17(-18) x 7.5-9(-10) [micro]m; perispore indihescent in 10 % KOH, perispore/epispore smooth by LM as well as SEM (20.000x).
Stromatal secondary metabolites: BNT (1) and other binaphthalene derivatives prevailing.
Cultures and anamorph. Unknown.
Notes: Versiomyces cahuchucosus was already discussed as a possible synonym of D. vernicosa (as fissa) by Ju et al. (1997), and we confirm the affinities to the D. vernicosa/D. loculata group by chemotaxonomic methodology and SEM data. As stated by Whalley & Watling (1988), there is, indeed, a tendency of the stromata to become horizontally zonate, even though the zones are less conspicuous than in typical Daldinia spp. However, the faint vertical zonation at the base of the stroma somehow recalls D. lloydii, and notably, Wollweber & Stadler (2001) already reported atypical stromata of D. vernicosa (as D. fissa) that lacked the typical, broad white zones and occurred after an exceptionally hot summer at the same collection site where regular stromata had been observed for several years. Since our concept easily allows for inclusion of taxa that do not show a conspicuous zonation of the stromata, and considering that D. gelatinoides, as well as D. placentiformis are accepted, the genus Versiomyces is synonymised with Daldinia.
The closest affinity of D. cahuchucosa is probably with D. bakeri, with which it shares a strikingly similar perithecial and ascospore morphology. However, the ascospores are slightly larger in the former, and the zonation of the stromata is entirely different in these taxa.
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