Banksiamyces
| Banksiamyces | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Berkeley and Broome's 1887 drawings of various Australian fungi, including Tympanis toomansis (#s 18–22) | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Ascomycetes |
| Order: | Helotiales |
| Family: | Helotiaceae |
| Genus: |
Banksiamyces G.W. Beaton |
| Type species | |
|
Banksiamyces macrocarpus G.W. Beaton |
|
| Species | |
B. katerinae
B. maccannii
B. macrocarpus
B. toomansis
Banksiamyces is a genus of fungi in the order Helotiales, with a tentative placement in the family Helotiaceae. The genus contains four species, which grow on the seed follicles of the dead infructescences or "cones" of various species of Banksia, a genus in the plant family Proteaceae endemic to Australia. Fruit bodies of the fungus appear as small (typically less than 10 mm diameter), shallow dark cups on the follicles of the Banksia fruit. The edges of dry fruit bodies fold inwards, appearing like narrow slits. The first specimens of Banksiamyces, known then as Tympanis toomansis, were described in 1887. Specimens continued to be collected occasionally for almost 100 years before becoming examined more critically in the early 1980s, leading to the creation of a new genus to contain what was determined to be three distinct species, B. katerinae, B. macrocarpus, and B. toomansis. A fourth species, B. maccannii, was added in 1984.
In 1887, English mycologists Miles Joseph Berkeley and Christopher Edmund Broome described a species of fungus they named Tympanis toomansis, collected from dead infructescences ("cones") of Banksia growing on the banks of the Tooma River in southern New South Wales, Australia. Its generic placement was a result of its resemblance to Tympanis, a genus in the family Helotiaceae of the Ascomycota.
Additional collections, then still believed to be T. toomansis, were made from South Australia in 1952, again on dead cones of unspecified Banksia, and also in 1956 on dead cones of Banksia marginata. In 1957 and 1958, R. W. G. Dennis redescribed the species, and after consultation with Canadian mycologist James Walton Groves, who had earlier completed a monograph on the genus Tympanis, transferred the taxon to the genus Encoelia (family Sclerotiniaceae).Encoelia species are small, tough, brownish discomycetes that typically grow in clusters on hardwood or woody substrates. Because the original collections were incomplete and certain microscopic features inadequately described, various collections made from Australia were presumed to be variations of the original 1887 collection.
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