Ceratobasidium noxium is a species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of fungus

Fungus

A fungus is a member of a large group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds , as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, Fungi, which is separate from plants, animals, and bacteria...

 in the order

Order (biology)

In scientific classification used in biology, the order is# a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, family, genus, and species, with order fitting in between class and family...

 Cantharellales

Cantharellales

The Cantharellales are an order of fungi in the class Agaricomycetes. The order includes not only the chanterelles , but also some of the tooth fungi , clavarioid fungi , and corticioid fungi...

. Basidiocarps (fruit bodies) are thin, effused and web-like. The species is tropical to sub-tropical and is mainly known as a plant pathogen, the causative agent of "kole-roga" or black rot of coffee

Coffee

Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...

 and various blights of citrus

Citrus

Citrus is a common term and genus of flowering plants in the rue family, Rutaceae. Citrus is believed to have originated in the part of Southeast Asia bordered by Northeastern India, Myanmar and the Yunnan province of China...

 and other trees.

Taxonomy

The fungus responsible for kole-roga of coffee was sent from India to Mordecai Cubitt Cooke

Mordecai Cubitt Cooke

Mordecai Cubitt Cooke was an English botanist and mycologist.Cooke came from a mercantile family in Horning, Norfolk, and worked as an apprentice to a fabric merchant before becoming a clerk in a law firm, but his chief interest was in botany. He founded the Society of Amateur Botanists in 1862...

 at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, usually referred to as Kew Gardens, is 121 hectares of gardens and botanical glasshouses between Richmond and Kew in southwest London, England. "The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew" and the brand name "Kew" are also used as umbrella terms for the institution that runs...

 who named it Pellicularia koleroga in 1876. Cooke, however, described only hyphae and some small warted spores, later presumed to be from a contaminating mould. As a result Donk, when reviewing Pellicularia in 1954, dismissed both the genus and P. koleroga as "nomina confusa", later (1958) substituting the new name Koleroga noxia for the species. Based on a re-examination of specimens, Roberts (1999) considered Koleroga to be a synonym of Ceratobasidium

Ceratobasidium

Ceratobasidium is a genus of fungi in the order Cantharellales. Basidiocarps are effused and the genus is sometimes grouped among the corticioid fungi, though species also retain features of the heterobasidiomycetes. Rhizoctonia-like anamorphs of Ceratobasidium species are placed in the genus...

, hence the current name Ceratobasidium noxium.
"Koleroga" means "rot disease" in the Kannada language of Karnataka

Karnataka

Karnataka , the land of the Kannadigas, is a state in South West India. It was created on 1 November 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act and this day is annually celebrated as Karnataka Rajyotsava...

.

Description

Fruit bodies are effused, thin, and whitish. Microscopically they have colourless hyphae, 3 to 8 μm wide, without clamp connection

Clamp connection

A clamp connection is a structure formed by growing hyphal cells of certain fungi. It is created to ensure each septum, or segment of hypha separated by crossed walls, receives a set of differing nuclei, which are obtained through mating of hyphae of differing sexual types...

s. The basidia are ellipsoid to broadly club-shaped, 10 to 12 by 7 to 8 μm, bearing 4 sterigmata. The basidiospores are narrow and fusiform, 9 to 13 x 3 to 5 μm.

Habitat and distribution

Ceratobasidium noxium has only been collected as a plant pathogen on living stems and leaves of commercial crops (including coffee, citrus, and persimmon

Persimmon

A persimmon is the edible fruit of a number of species of trees in the genus Diospyros in the ebony wood family . The word Diospyros means "the fire of Zeus" in ancient Greek. As a tree, it is a perennial plant...

) on which it causes a web blight. It has been reported from Asia (including India and Vietnam) and from the Americas (including Colombia, Guatemala, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, United States, and Venezuela).