Abstract
Palms represent the most morphological diverse monocotyledonous plants and support a vast array of fungi. Recent examinations of palmicolous fungi in Thailand led to the discovery of a group of morphologically similar and interesting taxa. A polyphasic approach based on morphology, multi-gene phylogenetic analyses and divergence time estimates supports the establishment of a novel pleosporalean family Striatiguttulaceae, which diversified approximately 39 (20-63) MYA (crown age) and 60 (35-91) MYA (stem age). Striatiguttulaceae is characterized by stromata or ascomata with a short to long neck, trabeculate pseudoparaphyses and fusiform to ellipsoidal, 1-3-septate ascospores, with longitudinal striations and paler end cells, surrounded by a mucilaginous sheath. Multi-gene phylogenetic analysis showed that taxa of Striatiguttulaceae form a well-supported and distinct monophyletic clade in Pleosporales, and related to
and
. However, these families can be morphologically demarcated by the slit-like ascomata and extremely large ascospores in
and the rather narrow fusiform ascospores in
. Eight strains of Striatiguttulaceae formed two monophyletic sub-clades, which can be recognized as
and
Morphologically, the genus
can be differentiated from
by its elongated immersed ascomata and fusiform ascospores with relatively larger middle cells and paler end cells. Two new species
and
, and one new combination,
are introduced with morphological details, and phylogenetic relationships are discussed based on DNA sequence data.