LIRULA Darker. Rhytismataceae. 2 Ukrainian species on Abies and Picea

1	ascomata and conidiomata on the same side of the needle; on Picea	Lirula macrospora
	ascomata and conidiomata on different sides of the needle; on Abies	Lirula nervisequia

Lirula macrospora (R. Hartig) Darker [click here for picture] [click here for picture]. Status. Native; 14 records since 3 June 1911; locally not rare. Months. April, May, June, July, September, October. Regions. Poltava, Ternopil, Vinnytsia, Zakarpatska. Habitat. Fruiting on dead attached needles of Picea abies which it has killed, on living branches, probably on poorly-growing trees which appear to be suppressed by their better-growing neighbours; infected needles typically remain strongly attached to their twig, so the fungus is unlikely to be encountered in the litter; always fruiting within 12 months of needle death. Notes. Many more records from Ukraine probably exist in forest pathology literature. Worldwide. Widespread in Europe and North America on Picea spp. References. Cannon & Minter (1984b) [description]; Minter & Dudka (1996) [Ukrainian records]; Morochovskii, Zerova, Lavitskaya & Smitskaya (1969) [Ukrainian records].

Lirula nervisequia (DC.) Darker [click here for picture]. Status. Native; 6 records since 25 October 1969. Months. May, October, November, December. Regions. Crimea, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv. Habitat. Fruiting on dead needles of Abies alba which it has killed; although exact details are not available, its ecology in Ukraine is probably typical of other parts of Europe where infected needles remain strongly attached to the still living twig, so that the fungus is unlikely to be encountered in the litter, and the fungus always fruits within 12 months of needle death. Notes. Two varieties of this species have been described distinguished by the relative frequency with which pycnidia of the conidial state occur; both have been recorded from Ukraine; the typical variety, Lirula nervisequia var. nervisequia, with few pycnidia has been recorded from Crimea and Ivano-Frankivsk; the other variety, Lirula nervisequia var. conspicua, with many pycnidia, has been recorded from Lviv. Worldwide. Widespread on Abies spp. in Europe and North America, but fewer records than for Lirula macrospora. References. Minter & Dudka (1996) [Ukrainian records]; Minter & Millar (1984) [description]; Morochovskii, Zerova, Lavitskaya & Smitskaya (1969) [Ukrainian records].