DICHOTOMOCLADIUM Benny & R. K. Benjamin, 1975 (Aliso 8:338); 5 spp. (Benny and Benjamin, 1975, 1993).
Species ofDichotomocladiumform a sporulating head that is composed of dichotomously branched fertile hyphae in which one branch becomes a sterile spine and the other continues branching many times until it terminates in a fertile vesicle. The vesicles produce several pedicellate, unispored sporangia. The fertile heads can have few or many sterile spines that project above the surface of the structure. Zygospores are formed in the aerial hyphae either close to the substrate or scattered near the surface of the colony. The zygosporangial wall is ornamented and darkly pigmented and the suspensors are opposed.
Type species:D. elegans
Species ofDichotomocladium:
D. elegansBenny & R.K. Benjamin, 1975 (Aliso 8:339) .
D. floridanumBenny & R.K. Benjamin, 1993 (Mycologia 85:667).
D. hesseltinei(B.S. Mehrotra & Sarbhoy) Benny & R.K. Benjamin, 1975 (Aliso 8:345) emend. Benny & R.K. Benjamin, 1993 (Mycologia 85:667).
D. robustumBenny & R.K. Benjamin, 1975 (Aliso 8:342) .
D. sphaerosporumR.K. Benjamin & Benny, 1993 (in Benny and R.K. Benjamin, Mycologia 85:665).
Five species have been described inDichotomocladium(Benny and Benjamin 1975, 1993). All species ofDichotomocladiumare coprophilous; they are not commonly encountered. (Aygomycetes.org and accessed this site 9 June 2015)
