Teleomorph of Varicosporina prolifera was revealed not to be Corollospora intermedia as suggested formerly, but an undescribed fungus of Corollospora by culturing and phylogenetic study. The true sexual state of V. prolifera is hereby described and a new combined name C. prolifera is proposed. During our studies on marine fungi along the coasts of Japan, an unknown fungus forming clavate conidia was discovered from beaches of Rishiri Island in the northern cool region of Japan and is described here as a new anamorphic species, C. clavata. Regarding the life cycle of Corollospora, 20 species have a teleomorph type life cycle, while in the other eight species, each four are teleomorph-anamorph type and anamorph type, respectively. Phylogenetic analyses revealed three species having Varicosporina anamorphs, C. anglusa, C. prolifera, and C. ramulosa are closely related, and the former two species have the teleomorph-anamorph type life cycles, and the latter one has the anamorph type. Phylogenetic and morphological data suggest that C. anglusa possibly evolved from the teleomorph type ancestor and that C. ramulosa differentiated from the teleomorph-anamorph type ancestor relating to C. prolifera. Similar species differentiation associated with shifting of life cycle types probably occurred in several lineages in Corollospora.

Sporocarps of Endogonales fungi, collected from Japanese forest environments, have been described in previous studies; however, their root colonization has not been fully revealed. To investigate Endogonales diversity in the roots of understory herbaceous plants, we examined fungal partial nuclear small subunit ribosomal DNA amplicons obtained from 13 plant species in five forests. In total, 20 operational taxonomic units (OTU) clustered at 97% sequence similarity were identified and classified into two families, Endogonaceae and Densosporaceae, with most OTUs belonging to the latter. Most OTUs were not closely related to known species; however, some were closely related to plant mycobiont, as reported in previous studies. Although most OTUs were detected in only a few plant species and study sites, one OTU was found in most examined plant individuals. This widespread OTU fungus may play an ecologically important role, but its actual function and morphology remain unknown, requiring further studies.