The Leotiomycetes are a class of ascomycete fungi. Many of them cause serious Phytopathology.
Systematics
The class Leotiomycetes contains numerous species with an
anamorph placed within the
deuteromycota (deuteromycota), that have only recently found their place in the phylogenetic system. The older classifications placed Leotiomycetes into the
Discomycetes clade (inoperculate Discomycetes). Molecular studies have recently shed some new light to the still obscure systematics. Most scholars consider Leotiomycetes a
sister taxon to
Sordariomycetes in the phylogenetic tree of
Pezizomycotina. Its division into subclasses have received strong support by the molecular data, but the overall
monophyly of Leotiomycetes is dubious.
The order Lichinodiales and family Lichinodiaceae, newly circumscribed in 2019 to contain the genus cyanolichen genus Lichinodium, is the first known group of lichen-forming fungi in the Leotiomycetes.
More orders were added in 2020, Lahmiales, Lauriomycetales, Marthamycetales, Medeolariales, Micraspidales and Phacidiales.
Characteristics
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Most Leotiomycetes grow their Ascus in apothecia (seldom cleistothecia). The asci are cylindrical, without operculum.
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The are hyaline, of various shapes, and are released through a circular apical pore.
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