The Hysteriaceae are a taxonomic family of fungi and the only extant family of the order Hysteriales. Members of the Hysteriaceae are defined by the possession of a sexual structure called the hysterothecium, an elongated structure that opens by a longitudinal slit and releases sexually produced spores. The family is widely distributed, with many species found in temperate regions, and most are saprobic on wood and bark, although a few are parasitic on plants.
Description The defining feature of this group—the hysterothecium—is a dense, persistent darkly colored structure, with a boat-like shape and a pronounced lengthwise slit. Hysterothecia are capable of opening partially to reveal a lenticular (lens-shaped), disk-like hymenium or closing tightly in response to relative humidity. They can be embedded in the substratum, bursting through the surface of the substratum (erumpent), or rest entirely on the surface. They can be solitary or in groups, ellipsoid to greatly elongated, and are sometimes branched, triradiate or borne on a crust- or net-like growth of mycelium (a subiculum).Zogg H. (1962). Die Hysteriaceae s. str. und Lophiaceae. Beitr Kryptogamenfl Schweiz 11: 1–190. In vertical section, hysterothecia are globose to inversely ovoid (obovoid), with a thick three-layered peridium, composed of small pseudoparenchymatous cells, the outer layer heavily encrusted with pigment and often longitudinally striated in age, the middle layer lighter in pigmentation and the inner layer distinctly thin-walled, pallid and compressed.Barr ME. (1987). Prodromus to class Loculoascomycetes. Hamilton I. Newell, Inc., Amherst, Massachusetts: M.E. Barr Bigelow. 168 p.
The hamathecium (hyphae or other tissues between asci) is composed of persistent cellular pseudoparaphyses (hyphae originating above the level of the asci and growing downwards between the developing asci), in a gel matrix, with tips often darkened or branched at maturity to form an epithecium (the external layer of tissue of the fruiting body of lichens and fungi, formed by the union of the tips of the paraphyses over the spore sacs). Bitunicate (double-walled) asci are borne in a basal layer and at maturity are typically club-shaped to cylindrical, bearing eight ascospores, overlapping in two series, ranging from hyaline to dark brown, obovoid, clavate, ellipsoid or fusoid. Ascospores are highly diverse in septation, and range from didymospores to phragmospores to dityospores, at times surrounded by a gel coating, and often show bipolar asymmetry. The Hysteriaceae are panglobal in distributionAmano N. (1983). Saprobic loculoascoycetous fungi from Japan 1. Hysteriaceous fungi. Trans mycol Soc Japan 24: 283–297.Checa J, Shoemaker RA, Umaña L. (2007). Some new hysteriaceous fungi from Costa Rica. Mycologia 99: 285–290.Lee S, Crous PW. (2003). Taxonomy and biodiversity of hysteriaceous ascomycetes in fynbos. S Afr J Bot 69: 480–488.Lorenzo LE, Messuti MI. (1998). Noteworthy Hysteriaceae from southern South America. Mycol Res 102: 1101–1107.Messuti MI, Lorenzo LE. (1997). A new species of Hysterium from Patagonia, Argentina. Mycol Res 101: 302–304.Messuti MI, Lorenzo LE. (2003). Notes on the genus Hysterographium (Ascomycota, Hysteriaceae) in southern South America. Nova Hedwigia 76: 451–458.Teng SC. 1933. Notes on Hysteriales from China. Sinensia 4: 129–144.van der Linde EJ. (1992). Notes on the South African Hysteriaceae (Ascomyctes: Mycotina). S Afr J Bot58: 491–499.Vasilyeva LN. (1999a). Hysteriaceous fungi in the Russian Far East I. Hysterium. Mikologiya i Fitopatologiya 33: 225–227.Vasilyeva LN. (1999b). Hysteriaceous fungi in the Russian Far East II. The genus Hysterographium. Mikologiya i Fitopatologiya 33: 297–301.Vasilyeva LN. (2000). Hysteriaceous fungi in the Russian Far East III. Glonium and Actidiographium. Mikologiya i Fitopatologiya 34: 3–5. and are primarily lignicolous or corticolous (living on bark), although recently a saxicolous and apparently lichenized species has been described from Tasmania.Kantvilas G, Coppins BJ. (1997). Melaspilea circumserpens Nyl. rediscovered and referred to Glonium, with discussion on the provenance of some of Robert Brown’s lichen specimens.Lichenol. 29: 525–531.
Classification Current classification of the HysteriaceaeEriksson OE. (2006). Outline of Ascomycota. Myconet 12: 1–88. includes the following genera: Hysterium Tode emend. Fr., Hysterographium Corda emend. de Not., Gloniopsis de Not., Gloniella Sacc., Glonium Muhlenb. ex. Fr., Farlowiella Sacc., and Hysterocarina Zogg, to which has been added Actidiographium Vassiljeva. The genera Hysteroglonium Rehm ex Lindau, Hysteropatella Rehm and Pseudoscypha Reid & Prioz. are tentatively included in the Hysteriaceae by Eriksson. Both coelomycetous pynidial states (e.g., Hysteropycnis) and dematiaceous hyphomycetous anamorphs (e.g., Coniosporium, Septonema, Sphaeronema and Sporidesmium) have been described for members of the Hysteriaceae.Lohman ML. (1931). A study of Glonium parvulum in culture. Pap Mich Acad Sci Arts Letters 13: 141–156.Lohman ML. 1933. Hysteriaceae: Life histories of certain species. Pap Mich Acad Sci Arts Letters 17: 229–288.Lohman ML. (1934). A cultural and taxonomic study of Hysterium hyalinum. Pap Mich Acad Sci Arts Letters 19: 133–140.
Historical The genus Hysterium, the type genus of the family Hysteriaceae, is attributed to Heinrich Julius Tode (1784),Tode HJ. (1784). Beschreibung des Venusschwämmes (Hysterium). Schrift Berlin Ges Naturf Freunde 5: 53–55. who was the first to apply the name to a group of fungi bearing a pronounced longitudinal slit, for which he gave the common name Venusschwämme. Recognizing the transitional nature of the ascoma, Tode later (1791) stated: “Medium hoc genus inter Pezizas and Lichenes”.Tode HJ. (1791). Fungi Mecklenburgensis II. Persoon (1801)Persoon CH. (1801). Synopsis methodica Fungorum. synonymized the epithet pulicaris, first proposed by Lightfoot (1777)Lightfoot J. 1777. Flora Scotica. for a variety of Lichen scriptus β pulicaris, into what was to later become the type species of the genus, namely Hysterium pulicare Pers. ex Fr. Early authors provided remarkably accurate figures of hysteriaceous fungi. James Bolton (1789)Bolton J. 1789. An history of fungusses growing about Halifax, Vol III. and Robert Kaye Greville (1825)Greville RK. 1825. Scottish Cryptogamic Flora, III. Edinburgh, Scotland. were the first to provide illustrations of asci and ascospores.
Due to the seemingly transitional nature of the hysterothecium, neither fully open nor closed, hysteriaceous fungi have been placed in the discomycetes and pyrenomycetes about equally by various mycologists throughout the 19th Century.Bisby GR. 1923. The literature on the classification of the Hysteriales. Trans Brit Mycol Soc 8: 176–189. In his Systema Mycologicum, Fries (1823)Fries EM. 1823. Systema Mycologicum, sistens fungorum ordines, genera et species hucusque cognitas, II, pars II:276–620. initially considered hysteriaceous fungi to belong to the pyrenomycetes and placed them in the order Phacidiacei, but later (1835) placed them in his new class discomycetes, stating: “Transitum sistunt ad Discomycetes, sed discum verum non monstrant.”Fries EM. 1835. Corpus Florarum provincialium Sueciae, I. Floram Scanicam. François Fulgis Chevallier (1826) recognized the unique nature of the hysterothecium and was the first to segregate hysteriaceous fungi into a new order, the Hysterineae, which he considered as pyrenomycetes distinct from Fries’ Phacidiei.Chevallier FF. 1826. Flore général des environs de Paris, Vol I. August Corda (1842), on the other hand, retained the Phacidiei within the Hysteriaceae, and divided the family into a number of subfamilies.Corda ACJ. 1842. Icones Fungorum Hucusque Cognitorum, Vol V. Giuseppe De Notaris (1847) considered the Hysteriaceae to belong to the pyrenomycetes and used spore pigmentation to classify hysteriaceous fungi into the Phaeosporii and the Hyalosporii.De Notaris CG. 1847. Prime linee di una nuova disposizione de Pirenomiceti Isterini. Giorn Bot Ital 2, part I, fasc. 7–8: 5–52. Pier Andrea Saccardo (1873) initially followed Fries,Saccardo PA. 1873. Mycologiae Venetae Specimen. Atti Soc Venet Trent Sc Nat, Padova 2: 155–160. but later (1874) placed hysteriaceous fungi in the pyrenomycetes,Saccardo PA. 1874. Conspectus generum pyrenomycetum italicorum. Atti Soc Venet Trent Sc Nat, Padova 4: 77–100. and carried de Notaris’ (1847) spore classification scheme further by dividing the Hysteriaceae into nine sections based on pigmentation and the morphology of spore septation.Saccardo PA. 1883. Sylloge Fungorum, omnium hucusque cognitorum. 2: 776–783. Job Bicknell Ellis and Benjamin Matlack Everhart (1892), in their North American Pyrenomycetes, tentatively included the Hysteriaceae, but stated that they had not at first intended to do so due to the transitional nature of the hysterothecium.Ellis JB, Everhart BM. 1892. The North American Pyrenomycetes. Newfield NJ. 793 p. In Rabenhorst’s Kryptogamen-Flora, Die Pilze, Heinrich Rehm (1896) compromised and placed the Hysteriales as an order intermediate between the pyrenomycetes and the discomycetes.Rehm H. 1896. Ascomyceten: Hysteriaceen und Discomyceten, In: L. Rabenhorst’s Kryptogamen-Flora von Deutschland, Oesterreich und der Schweiz. 2nd Ed, Eduard Kummer, Leipzig 3: 1–56.
Duby (1862) considered hysteriaceous fungi to belong to the pyrenomycetes and proposed two sections, the Hystériées to include Hysterium, Glonium, and Actidium Fr. among others, and the Lophiées to accommodate Ostreichnion Duby, Mytilinidion Duby and Lophium Fr.Duby JE. 1862. Mémoire sur la tribu des Hystérinées de la famille des Hypoxylées (Pyrénomycètes). Mém Soc Phys et Hist Nat Genève 16: 15–70. Although Duby’s (1862) method of classification, based on dehiscent versus nondehiscent asci, was not followed by subsequent workers, he was the first to propose dividing hysteriaceous fungi into what was later to become two distinct families. However, one hundred years would pass before this distinction was fully recognized.
Although Franz von Höhnel (1918) considered the Hysteriaceae to be pyrenomycetes, he proposed a radical revision of the Hysteriales.von Höhnel F. 1918. Mycologische Fragmente, 272. Uber die Hysteriaceen. Ann Mycol 16: 145–154. Many of the fifty plus genera were removed, thereby leaving a greatly reduced core group to form the Hysteriaceae: Hysterium, Hysterographium, Farlowiella, Gloniella, Gloniopsis, Glonium (including the subgenus Psiloglonium von Höhnel for species of Glonium without subiculum), Bulliardella Sacc. (Paoli) [=Actidium], Mytilidion Sacc. [=Mytilinidion], Ostreion Sacc. [=Ostreichnion], Lophium and Dichaena Fr. The Hysteriaceae were seen as closely related to the Lophiostomataceae and the two were united into a new order, the “Hysterostomaeae” by von Höhnel.
Modern