Pestalotiopsis machiliana X. X. Luo & Jian Ma

Pestalotiopsis machiliana X. X. Luo & Jian Ma, Mycokeys 109: 229 (2024) Fig. 7 Type. China • Hubei Province, Wuhan City, Wuhan Botanical Garden, on diseased leaves of Bambusa multiplex (Lour.) Raeusch. ex Schult. cv. Fernleaf R. A. Young, 24 October 2024, M. G. Liao (HJAUP M 2801, living culture HJAUP C 2801.1 = HJAUP C 2801.2). Description. Leaf tip lesions, paler brown spots with brown margin between diseased and healthy tissue. Asexual morph on PDA: Conidiomata acervular, globose to clavate, 1000–1350 μm diam., solitary or aggregated in clusters, black. Conidiophores indistinct and reduced to conidiogenous cells. Conidiogenous cells hyaline, smooth, cylindrical to ampulliform. Conidia fusiform, straight or slightly curved, 18.1–25.1 × 4.9–6.8 μm (x ̄ = 21.3 × 5.8 μm, n = 50), 4 - septate, slightly constricted at the septa; basal cell conical, 2.9–5.3 μm (x ̄ = 3.9 μm), hyaline or sometimes pale brown, smooth, thin-walled, with a single filiform appendage, unbranched, 4.4–7.1 μm (x ̄ = 5.9 μm) long; three median cells doliiform to cylindrical, smooth, thick-walled, 11.2–17.3 μm (x ̄ = 13.9 μm), concolorous, brown, somewhat constricted at the septa, second cell from the base 3.5–5.7 µm (x ̄ = 4.6 μm) long, third cell 3.9–5.9 µm (x ̄ = 4.7 μm) long, fourth cell 3.8–5.7 µm (x ̄ = 4.6 μm) long); apical cell conical to acute, hyaline, smooth, thin-walled, 2.3–4.8 µm (x ̄ = 3.5 μm) long, with 2–3 filiform appendages, arising from the apex of the apical cell each at a different point, unbranched, 9.3–20.8 µm (x ̄ = 14.9 μm) long. Sexual morph: not observed. Culture characteristics. Colonies on PDA grow fast, filamentous, reaching 55–70 mm diam. after 5–7 days at 25 ° C in light and dark conditions (8 h / 16 h), white, with flocculent mycelium and entire edge, forming black conidiomata, and reverse pale orange. Notes. Pestalotiopsis machiliana was introduced by Luo et al. (2024) and isolated from diseased leaves of Machilus pauhoi in Jiangxi Province, China. Phylogenetic analyses showed that our new isolates (HJAUP C 2801.1 and HJAUP C 2801.2) cluster with the group of P. machiliana (HJAUP C 1704.221, HJAUP C 1704.222, HJAUP C 1704.223, HJAUP C 1790.221 T, and HJAUP C 1790.222) with 99 % ML / 1.00 BI bootstrap support (Fig. 1). A BLASTn search of GenBank revealed that the sequences of our new isolate (HJAUP C 2801.1) and P. machiliana (HJAUP C 1790.221 T) share 99 % similarity (630 / 632, including one gap) in ITS, 100 % similarity (272 / 272, no gaps) in tef 1-α, and 99 % similarity (481 / 482, including one gap) in tub 2. Morphologically, our isolate aligns well with the original description of P. machiliana (Luo et al. 2024). Thus, based on the high morphological similarity and only minor molecular differences, we identified our new isolate as P. machiliana.