| Pseudoplectania | |
|---|---|
| Pseudoplectania nigrella | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Phylum: | Ascomycota |
| Subphylum: | Pezizomycotina |
| Class: | Pezizomycetes |
| Order: | Pezizales |
| Family: | Sarcosomataceae |
| Genus: | Pseudoplectania Fuckel |
| Type species | |
| Pseudoplectania nigrella (Pers.) Fuckel |
|
| Species | |
|
Pseudoplectania melaena |
|
| Synonyms[1] | |
|
Melascypha Boud. 1885 |
|
Pseudoplectania is a genus of fungi in the family Sarcosomataceae. According to the Dictionary of the Fungi (10th edition, 2008), the genus contains three or four species, found in Europe and North America.[2]
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The genus was first described by the German botanist Fuckel in 1870, who originally included the two species P. nigrella and P. fulgens.[3] The latter species was removed from the genus by Pier Andrea Saccardo in 1889, and made the type species of his newly created genus Otidella (now considered synonymous with Caloscypha as described by Boudier in 1885;[4] P. fulgens is now Caloscypha fulgens). Saccardo added the species P. melania and P. stygia, the latter of which is thought to be synonymous with P. nigrella.[5]
Phylogenetic analysis based on the DNA sequences of ribosomal RNA suggests that Pseudoplectania groups in a clade together with Galiella, Plectania, Urnula, Sarcosoma, and Donadinia, and that it is most closely related to the latter genus. Pseudoplectania differs from Plectania mainly in spore shape—spherical in Pseudoplectania compared to ellipsoidal in Plectania.[6]
The generic name means false plectania.
The fruit bodies of Plectania fungi grow either in groups or scattered apart, with stems or without (sessile), and are large and fleshy. They are covered on the external surfaces with short, slender, flexuous (bendy) and often coiled or twisted hairs that sometimes give the exterior of the cup a tomentose appearance—covered with dense, matted hairs. The spore-bearing cells, the asci, range in shape from cylindrical to club-shaped, and they are eight-spored. The spores are perfectly spherical, smooth, and hyaline (translucent). The paraphyses may be either straight or curved.[5]
Pseudoplectania nigrella, the type species, has a worldwide distribution. Among its common names are the "hairy black cup".[7]
Pseudoplectania sphagnophila resembles P. nigrella but has a more deeply and persistently cup-shaped fruit body, a short but distinct stem, and grows solely amongst sphagnum moss.[8]
Pseudoplectania vogesiaca has fruit bodies with long stems, and is covered with a thin layer of straight or slightly flexuous hairs.[5]