Lophodermium pini-excelsae  

Anamorph: conidiomata 150-300 x 100-180 µm, subepidermal, opening with a lateral slit or a linear cluster of ostioles, rarely coalescing, concolorous with or slightly darker than the substratum surface, sometimes with a darker margin. Conidiogenous cells developing in a compact palisade from a poorly defined layer of fungal cells, 8-12 x 2-3 µm, cylindrical but tapered near the apex, proliferating sympodially. Conidia bacillar (5-) 6.5-9 x 0.75-1 µm, cylindrical, sometimes slightly isthmoid or with one end slightly swollen, hyaline, aseptate, thin-walled, without an epispore or gelatinous sheath.
Teleomorph: ascomata immersed apothecia, 300-800 x 200-500 µm, amphigenous on needles, sometimes with a few black zone lines separating colonies, when wet black, when dry black in the centre for more than half the total ascoma surface, the remainder grey surrounded by a black line, covered by the host epidermis on either side, but above the epidermis in the centre (more than five epidermal cells visible in a group on the central part of the ascoma floor), opening by a single longitudinal split two thirds to three quarters of the length of the ascoma, the lips grey. Interascal tissue of filiform septate paraphyses 95-115 µm long, usually curved and slightly swollen at the apex, usually with a conspicuous gelatinous coating. Asci 75-130 x 10-12 µm, cylindrical, short-stalked, the apex obtuse, thin-walled, without any subapical structures, 8-spored. Ascospores arranged in a fascicle, 50-75 x 1.5-2 µm, filiform, not usually helically coiled, slightly tapered towards the base, hyaline, aseptate, thin-walled, smooth, surrounded by a gelatinous sheath 1-1.5 µm thick.