Botryosphaeria dothidea is the
type species of the genus
Botryosphaeria. the sexual (teleomorphic) and asexual (anamorphic) stages of single fungal species have often been called by different names.
B. dothidea was the name given to the teleomorphic form, and
Fusicoccum aesculi has been identified the anamorph of
B. dothidea, as currently defined. Phillips et al. (2013) chose to use the genus name
Botryosphaeria, rather than
Fusicoccum, since
Botryosphaeria is commonly used and is the type genus of the family Botryosphaeriaceae. Cesati and De Notaris described the genus
Botryosphaeria and moved the species formerly known as
S. dothidea into the new genus. In the case of
B. dothidea, these ascomata are pseudothecia. Pseudothecia are sometimes located alone and other times clustered together. In the asexual stage, conidia, which can also infect plants, are produced in pycnidia. The pycnidia and pseudothecia of
B. dothidea look very similar. Microconidia have also been reported in at least one
B. dothidea isolate. Microconidia are small, asexual spores that often act as male gametes or gametangia (spermatia) in a process of cytoplasmic fusion (plasmogamy) According to a key provided in Phillips et al. (2013),
B. dothidea can be distinguished from six other members of the genus by conidia that are typically longer than 20 μm, have a length to width ratio greater than 4.5, and occur on hosts other than
Vaccinium species. These conidia are "narrowly...or irregularly fusiform," have thin walls, and are generally transparent or translucent (hyaline) and aseptate but sometimes form up to two septa and/or darken when they are older. Differentiating between species based on morphology depends on observing multiple samples, to get an idea of prevailing character states, and doing so at the appropriate developmental stage. Sequencing is considered an important companion to morphological identification == References ==