Conidiogenesis and Conidiomata in the Clavicipitoideae

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Abstract
Light and scanning electron microscopy showed that conidiogenesis is holoblastic in the Ephelis states of Balansia epichloe, B. henningsiana, B. pilulaeformis, B. strangulans and Atkinsonella hypoxylon, phialidic in the Sphacelia states of Claviceps purpurea and Epichloe typhina, and of A. hypoxylon, which produces both conidial states. B. strangulans produces a continuous palisade of conidiophores over the surface of the stroma and beneath an evanescent peridial layer. In B. epichloe and B. henningsiana, sterile ridges separate the conidiophore palisade into flat, hysteriform cavities in the surface of the stroma. In a previously unreported Ephelis state of B. pilulaeformis (=Balansiopsis pilulaeformis), conidiophores are restricted to small discoid cavities in the stroma. A. hypoxylan produces apothecioid conidiomata in specialized protuberances from the stroma, as does B. claviceps (anamorph = E. mexicana, type of the genus Ephelis). In the Sphacelia state of C. purpurea conidiophores line chambers in the stroma, but in the Sphacelia states of Epichloe typhina and A. hypoxylon, they are borne on the surface of a smooth stroma.