Dichotomocladium
DICHOTOMOCLADIUM Benny & R. K. Benjamin, 1975 (Aliso 8:338); 5 spp. (Benny and Benjamin, 1975, 1993).
Species of Dichotomocladium form a sporulating head that is composed of dichotomously branched fertile hyphae in which one branch becomes a sterile spine and the other continues branching many times until it terminates in a fertile vesicle. The vesicles produce several pedicellate, unispored sporangia. The fertile heads can have few or many sterile spines that project above the surface of the structure. Zygospores are formed in the aerial hyphae either close to the substrate or scattered near the surface of the colony. The zygosporangial wall is ornamented and darkly pigmented and the suspensors are opposed.
Type species: D. elegans
Species of Dichotomocladium:
D. elegans Benny & R.K. Benjamin, 1975 (Aliso 8:339) .
D. floridanum Benny & R.K. Benjamin, 1993 (Mycologia 85:667).
D. hesseltinei (B.S. Mehrotra & Sarbhoy) Benny & R.K. Benjamin, 1975 (Aliso 8:345) emend. Benny & R.K. Benjamin, 1993 (Mycologia 85:667).
D. robustum Benny & R.K. Benjamin, 1975 (Aliso 8:342) .
D. sphaerosporum R.K. Benjamin & Benny, 1993 (in Benny and R.K. Benjamin, Mycologia 85:665).
Five species have been described in Dichotomocladium (Benny and Benjamin 1975, 1993). All species of Dichotomocladium are coprophilous; they are not commonly encountered.
Bibliography
Benny, G.L., and R. K. Benjamin. 1975. Observations on Thamnidiaceae (Mucorales). New taxa, new combinations, and notes on selected species. Aliso 8:301-351.
Benny, G.L., and R.K. Benjamin. 1993. Observations on Thamnidiaceae (Mucorales). VI. Two new species of Dichotomocladium and the zygospores of D. hesseltinei (Chaetocladiaceae). Mycologia 85:660-671.
Updated Mar 14, 2005