Amarenomyces ammophilae (All Fungi)
Stromata absent. Ascomata immersed in plant tissues, usually thinly scattered, to 500 µm diam, subglobose with a papillate ostiole 40-50 µm diam that usually extends just above the leaf surface. Interascal tissue composed of cellular pseudoparaphyses to ca 2 µm diam. Asci 130-190 x 24-38 µm, cylindrical, thick-walled and fissitunicate, the endotunica indistinctly multi-layered, 8-spored. Ascospores 40-54(-60) x 14-18 µm, (3-)6- to 7-septate, fusiform, yellowish brown, often with the end cells paler than the others, with a well-developed gelatinous sheath that is divided at the primary septum and umbilicate at the apices.
Anamorph: Amarenographium metableticum. Conidiomata pycnidial, 200-450 µm diam, scattered, subglobose, weakly papillate with an ostiole that just penetrates the epidermis. Conidiophores hyaline, septate, irregularly branched, apparently deliquescent by the time that the conidia are mature. Conidiogenous cells cylindrical, holoblastic, not proliferating. Conidia 22-30 x 9-13 µm, yellowish, fusiform to ellipsoidal or ovoid, the ends acute to rounded, hardly constricted at the median point, with 3-7 transverse septa with some segments with 1(-2) longitudinal septa, conidial wall thick and 2-layered, with large ± globose gelatinous appendages at each end.
A common species that is unlikely to require specific conservation measures
The ascus and ascospore structure of this species are rather distinct from species of Phaeosphaeria, as described by Eriksson (1967, 1981, 1982). Schoch et al. (2009) showed that the species clusters within the overall Phaeosphaeria clade, but there are other species of Phaeosphaeria found in the same habitat and the identification of the strain sequences needs confirmation. The link between anamorph and telemorph has not been proved experimentally
in dead leaves of Ammophila arenaria
Common in coastal regions of GBI. England (West Cornwall, North Devon, Dorset, East Kent, Lancs, North Lincs, Norfolk), Ireland (West Cork, Louth), Scotland (South Aberdeen, Ebudes, Outer Hebrides, Orkney, West Ross, West Sutherland, Westerness), Wales (Anglesey). Known also from coastal N & W Europe (Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Sweden).
Probably saprobic, possibly initially endophytic