''Neolecta'' is a genus of ascomycetous fungi. The species share the English designation "Earth tongues" along with some better-known fungi (e.g. '' Geoglossum'', '' Microglossum'') with a similar general form, but in fact they are only distantly related. ''Neolecta'' is the only genus belonging to the family Neolectaceae, which is the only family belonging to the order Neolectales. ''Neolectales'', in turn, is the only order belonging to the class Neolectomycetes, which belongs to the subdivision

Taphrinomycotina The Taphrinomycotina are one of three subdivisions constituting the Ascomycota (fungi that form their spores in a sac-like ascus) and is more or less synonymous with the slightly older invalid name Archiascomycetes (sometimes spelled Archaeascomy ...

of the

Ascomycota Ascomycota is a phylum of the kingdom Fungi that, together with the Basidiomycota, forms the subkingdom Dikarya. Its members are commonly known as the sac fungi or ascomycetes. It is the largest phylum of Fungi, with over 64,000 species. The def ...

Description

Fruiting bodies take the shape of unbranched to lobed bright yellowish, orangish to pale yellow-green colored, club-shaped, smooth, fleshy columns up to about tall. ''Neolecta'' fruitbodies consist of

hypha A hypha (; ) is a long, branching, filamentous structure of a fungus, oomycete, or actinobacterium. In most fungi, hyphae are the main mode of vegetative growth, and are collectively called a mycelium. Structure A hypha consists of one o ...

e and a

hymenium The hymenium is the tissue layer on the hymenophore of a fungal fruiting body where the cells develop into basidia or asci, which produce spores. In some species all of the cells of the hymenium develop into basidia or asci, while in oth ...

. The hymenium lacks paraphyses and the asci lack croziers, which makes the genus distinctive among other earth-tongues. '' Neolecta vitellina'' forms masses of

conidia A conidium ( ; : conidia), sometimes termed an asexual chlamydospore or chlamydoconidium (: chlamydoconidia), is an asexual, non- motile spore of a fungus. The word ''conidium'' comes from the Ancient Greek word for dust, ('). They are also ...

by budding, hinting at the possibility that it also produces a yeast state.

Similar species

Species of the genus may resemble those of '' Clavulinopsis'' and '' Spathularia''.

Taxonomy

''Neolecta'' does not have any close relatives. Phylogenetically, it clusters weakly with a bizarre group of basal ''Ascomycota'' including: '' Taphrina'', a dimorphic, half

yeast Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom (biology), kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are est ...

, half filamentous genus parasitic on leaves, branches, and

catkins A catkin or ament is a slim, cylindrical flower cluster (a spike), with inconspicuous or no petals, usually wind-pollinated (anemophilous) but sometimes insect-pollinated (as in ''Salix''). It contains many, usually unisexual flowers, arranged cl ...

; '' Schizosaccharomyces'', a genus of fission yeasts (e.g. ''

Schizosaccharomyces pombe ''Schizosaccharomyces pombe'', also called "fission yeast", is a species of yeast used in traditional brewing and as a model organism in molecular and cell biology. It is a unicellular eukaryote, whose cells are rod-shaped. Cells typically meas ...

''); and ''

Pneumocystis The Pneumocystidomycetes are a class of ascomycete fungi. It includes the single order Pneumocystidales, which contains the single monotypic family Pneumocystidaceae, which in turn contains the genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank ...

'', a yeast-like genus of mammalian parasites. To date, the genus has been unculturable, suggesting it is either obligately parasitic or symbiotic. It provides important evidence for the evolutionary history of the ''Ascomycota'' and has been called a

living fossil A living fossil is a Deprecation, deprecated term for an extant taxon that phenotypically resembles related species known only from the fossil record. To be considered a living fossil, the fossil species must be old relative to the time of or ...

. The genome of ''N. irregularis'' has been sequenced. Sequence analysis has revealed that rudimentary multicellularity is deeply rooted in the Ascomycota.

Distribution and habitat

''Neolecta'' is found in Asia, Northern Europe, North America, and southern Brazil. The species all live in association with trees, and at least one, ''N. vitellina'', grows from rootlets of its host, but it is not known whether the fungus is parasitic, saprotrophic, or mutualistic. It is said to be edible.

References

External links

George Barron's mushroom illustrations

The Oregon Coalition of Interdisciplinary Databases: "Archiascomycetes: Early Diverging Ascomycetes"
{{Taxonbar, from=Q134470 Ascomycota Taxa named by Carlo Luigi Spegazzini Taxa described in 1881 Ascomycota genera