The monotypic genus Complexipes C. Walker with the type species C. moniliformis C. Walker has been establish from Glomus-like spores recovered from among roots of Parthenocisus quinquefolia (L.) Planch. growing in a pine plantation (Walker (1979). No mycorrhizae formed by this fungus have been recognized. The spores resembled“crenulate spores” earlier revealed in Australia and New Zealand (Mosse and Bowen 1968) and those of the E-strain fungi found associated with ectendomycorrhizae of Pinus spp. (Mikola 1965; Wilcox et al. 1974).
Danielson (1982) suggested C. moniliformis to be a member of the Ascomycota. Young and Wilcox (1984) erected from C. moniliformis and the E-strain fungi a new species in the genus Tricharina Eckblad, T. mikolae Chin S. Yang & H.E. Wilcox (Discomycetes, Ascomycota). In 1985, Yang and Korf (1985a) emended the description of the genus Complexipes and considered this genus and the E-strain fungi to be congeneric. The emended description was based on examination of both cultures derived from roots or chlamydospores of the E-strain fungi and those obtained from ascospores of certain Tricharina species. Subsequently, Yang and Korf (1985b) segregated from the genus Tricharina emend. a new taxon, Wilcoxina Chin S. Yang & Korf gen. nov. (Pezizales) with anamorphs represented by chlamydospores of the genus Complexipes. However, the authors emphasized that because of a great variability in mycelial and chlamydospore morphology, there is no possibility to state connections between anamorphs and teleomorphs unless a teleomorph was obtained in one-species cultures with chlamydospores of a given fungus. Molecular investigations of cultures of Complexipes isolated from different Picea and Pinus spp. growing in Canada and the United States have indicated that the majority isolates examined represented two taxa, Wilcoxina mikolae and W. rehmii Chin S. Yang & Korf (Egger and Fortin 1990).
REFERENCES
Danielson R. M. 1982. Taxonomic affinities and criteria for identification of the common ectendomycorrhizal symbiont of pines. Can. J. Bot. 60, 7-18.
Egger K. N., Fortin J. A. 1990. Identification of taxa of E-strain mycorrhizal fungi by restriction fragment analysis. Can. J. Bot. 68, 1482-1488.
Mikola P. 1965. Studies on the ectendotrophic mycorrhiza of pine. Acta For. Fenn. 75, 1-56.
Mosse B., Bowen G. D. 1968. A key to the recognition of some Endogone spore types. Trans. Br. Mycol. Soc. 51, 469-483.
Walker C. 1979. Complexipes moniliformis: a new genus and species tentatively placed in the Endogonaceae. Mycotaxon 10, 99-104.
Wilcox H. E., Ganmore-Neumann R., Wang C. J. K. 1974. Characteristics of two fungi producing ectendomycorrhizae in Pinus resinosa. Can. J. Bot. 52, 2279-2282.
Yang C. S., Wilcox H. E. 1984. An E-strain ectendomycorrhiza form by a new species, Tricharina mikolae. Mycologia 76, 675-684.
Yang C. S., Korf R. 1985a. Ascorhizoctonia gen. nov. and Complexipes emend., two genera for anamorphs of species assigned to Tricharina (Discomycetes). Mycotaxon 23, 457-418.
Yang C. S., Korf R. P. 1985b. A monograph of the genus Tricharina and of a new segregate genus, Wilcoxina (Pezizales). Mycotaxon 24, 467-531.