South African Journal of Botany 2005, 71(3&4): 307–311 Copyright © NISC Pty Ltd Printed in South Africa — All rights reserved SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY EISSN 1727–9321 Seasonal trends in colonisation of Protea infructescences by Gondwana- myces and Ophiostoma spp. F Roets1, LL Dreyer1* and PW Crous2 1 Department of Botany, University of Stellenbosch, Private Bag X1, Matieland 7602, South Africa 2 Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures, Fungal Biodiversity Centre, Uppsalalaan 8, 3584 CT Utrecht, The Netherlands * Corresponding author, e-mail:
[email protected] Received 6 April 2004, accepted in revised form 18 November 2004 Seasonal growth of the fungal genera Gondwanamyces of Protea. A definite seasonal pattern was observed, with and Ophiostoma (hereafter referred to as ophiosto- colonisation numbers peaking during the wetter winter matoid fungi) on the floral parts of serotinous Protea- months. P. laurifolia was found to be a new host for ceae flowers was investigated. Several new Protea host Ophiostoma splendens and Gondwanamyces capensis. species were found and new knowledge emerged Ophiostomatoid fungi were restricted to dead floral parts, regarding the tissue types colonised by these fungi. and fruiting structures were never observed on living Although floral parts of a wide range of Proteaceae were plant tissue. Both the vector organisms and the specific examined, ophiostomatoid fungi were exclusively ecological function of the ophiostomatoid fungi are still collected from the infructescences of serotinous species unknown, and require further investigation. Introduction The floral diversity of the Cape Floristic Region (CFR) is world- two genera, namely Ophiostoma H. Syd. and P. Syd., renowned. This area includes the Fynbos Biome, which including the species Ophiostoma protearum Marais and contains most of the c.