Cryptogamic plants, such as bryophytes and ferns, occupy persistently moist habitats and depend on water for sexual reproduction, making them important yet understudied hosts for plant‐fungal associations. This study aimed to understand the diversity, taxonomic placement, and ecological modes of fungi associated with these cryptogamic hosts. During a survey of endophytic and saprobic fungi associated with the bryophyte Riccia fluitans and the ferns Diplopterygium chinense and Matteuccia struthiopteris in Southern China, five fungal isolates were obtained. Species delimitation, based on morphology and multilocus phylogenetic analyses, revealed that these collections belonged to the genera Didymella , Dinemasporium , and Periconia . Specifically, Didymella sinensis was identified as an endophyte from D. chinense and R. fluitans ; Dinemasporium americanum was identified as a saprobic fungus from M. struthiopteris ; Periconia ananasi was identified as an endophytic fungus from R. fluitans ; and Periconia cookei was identified as a saprobe from M. struthiopteris . To place these findings in a broader context, we also compiled a global dataset summarizing reported host species, host families, and geographic distributions for these taxa. Didymella , Dinemasporium , and Periconia show broad host ranges and wide distributions; this expanded host‐association dataset offers a useful baseline for future systematic, ecological, and biogeographical analyses of fungal specificity and host use in bryophytes and ferns.
Li et al. (Mon,) studied this question.