Description

 Life habit: parasitic on plants, rarely on lichens; Ascomata: perithecial teleomorph known in some species, unknown in lichenicolous species; Conidiomata: pycnidial, dispersed, globose, brown to dark brown, immersed, unilocular, ostiolate; wall: pale to dark brown, thin, of textura angularis; conidiophores: absent; conidiogenous cells: lining the pycnidial cavity, hyaline, enteroblastic, phialidic, determinate, discrete, doliiform, lageniform or short cylindrical, hyaline, smooth; conidia: arising singly, hyaline, narrowly ellipsoid to subcylindrical, 1(-3)-septate, thin-walled, smooth; Geography: cosmopolitan; Substrate: on leaves and stems of plants, rarely on thalli or apothecia of lichens.; Notes: The genus Ascochyta is mainly distinguished from Phoma by its 1-septate conidia. Ultrastructural studies attempting to separate both genera were difficult to relate to light-microscopical observations. Two lichenicolous species are known.