Cryptostroma

{{Speciesbox | image = Cryptostroma corticale (NYBG - Steere Herbarium).jpg| | image_caption = ''Cryptostroma corticale'' | display_parents = 2 | parent_authority = P.H. Greg. & S. Waller | taxon = Cryptostroma corticale | authority = (Ellis & Everh.) P.H. Greg. & S. Waller<ref name=Mycobank>{{cite web |url=http://www.mycobank.org/Biolomics.aspx?Table=Mycobank&MycoBankNr_=296218 |title=''Cryptostroma corticale'' |publisher=Mycobank |access-date=5 March 2016}}</ref> | synonyms = ''Coniosporium corticale'' <small>Ellis & Everh. (1889)</small> | synonyms_ref = <ref name=Mycobank/> }}

'''''Cryptostroma corticale''''' is a species of fungus that causes '''sooty bark disease''' of maples, particularly sycamore (''Acer pseudoplatanus''). The spores grow profusely under the bark of affected trees or stacked logs. The fungus causes disease and death in trees, and the spores are allergenic and cause a debilitating pneumonitis (inflammation of the lungs) in humans. It is the only species in the genus '''''Cryptostroma'''''.<ref>{{Catalogue of Life|id=62P6J|title=''Cryptostroma'' P.H.Greg. & S.Waller|access-date=25 March 2026}}</ref>

==Taxonomy== The fungus is thought to have originated in North America and was originally named ''Coniosporium corticale'' by the American mycologists Job Bicknell Ellis and Benjamin Matlack Everhart. The characteristics of the stroma, conidiophores and conidia was the basis for placing it in a new genus as ''Cryptostroma corticale''. It is the type species.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Gregory, P.H. |author-link=Philip Herries Gregory |author2=Waller, S. |year=1951 |title=''Cryptostroma corticale'' and sooty bark disease of sycamore (''Acer pseudoplatanus'') |journal=Transactions of the British Mycological Society |volume=34 |issue=4 |pages=579 |doi=10.1016/S0007-1536(51)80043-3 }}</ref>

==Biology== Sooty bark disease causes wilting of the crown and dieback of branches. Rectangular patches of bark, and later long strips of bark, become detached from the trunk exposing thick layers of black fungal spores.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://bfw.ac.at/ws/sdis.schadenstyp_e?sdis_id_in=119 |title=Sooty bark disease of maples |publisher=Bundesamt für Wald |access-date=5 March 2016}}</ref> It has been found that the fungus spreads more rapidly through the tree's tissues at {{convert|25|°C|°F|0|abbr=on}} than at {{convert|15|°C|°F|0|abbr=on}}, and in the former instance, more rapidly when the tree is under greater water stress. This would seem to suggest that the disease is associated with raised summer temperatures.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Dickenson, Susan |author2=Wheeler, B.E.J. |year=1981 |title=Effects of temperature, and water stress in sycamore, on growth of ''Cryptostroma corticale'' |journal=Transactions of the British Mycological Society |volume=76 |issue=2 |pages=181–185 |doi=10.1016/S0007-1536(81)80136-2 }}</ref>

==Allergenic activity== Maple bark disease, or maple bark stripper's disease, is an uncommon condition caused by exposure to the spores of ''C. corticale''.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Emanuel, Dean A. |author2=Wenzel, Frederick J. |author3=Lawton, Ben R. |year=1966 |title=Pneumonitis Due to ''Cryptostroma corticale'' (Maple-Bark Disease) |journal=New England Journal of Medicine |volume=274 |issue=25 |pages=1413–1418 |doi=10.1056/NEJM196606232742504 |pmid=5949005}}</ref> The spores are hyper-allergenic and cause a hypersensitivity pneumonitis.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cochard |first1=B. |last2=Crovadore|first2=J. |last3=Bovigny|first3=P.Y. |last4=Chablais|first4=R. |last5=Lefort |first5=F. |date=2015 |title=First reports of Cryptostroma corticale causing sooty bark disease in Acer sp. in Canton Geneva, Switzerland. |journal=New Disease Reports |volume=31 |page=8 |issue=1| doi=10.5197/j.2044-0588.2015.031.008 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Emanuel|first1=D.A. |last2=Wenzel|first2=F.J. |last3=Lawton |first3=B.R.|date=1966 |title=Pneumonitis due to Cryptostroma corticale (Maple-Bark Disease)|journal=New England Journal of Medicine |volume=274 |issue=25 |pages=1413–1418 |doi=10.1056/NEJM196606232742504 |pmid=5949005}}</ref> The disease has been found among workers in the paper industry employed to debark, cut and chip maple logs. The symptoms include breathlessness, fever, night sweats, chills and weight loss.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Rumack, Barry H.|author2=Spoerke, David G.|title=Handbook of Mushroom Poisoning: Diagnosis and Treatment|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WPWsZNvOqVAC&pg=PA379 |year=1994 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-0-8493-0194-0 |page=379}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist|30em}}

Category:Xylariales Category:Monotypic Sordariomycetes genera