Gnomoniopsis luodingensis Z. H. Guo & X. M. Tan 2026, sp. nov.

Gnomoniopsis luodingensis Z. H. Guo & X. M. Tan sp. nov. Fig. 5 Holotype. China • Guangdong Province, Luoding City, on leaves of Cinnamomum cassia (Lauraceae), 22°57'90"N, 111°69'98"E, 353.2 m asl., November. 2022, X. M. Tan, holotype GXMG 20221110-1, ex-type living culture GXCM RG 106 = CGMCC 3.29462. Etymology. Named after the collection site of the type specimen, Luoding City. Description. Endophytic in leaves of Cinnamomum cassia. Colonies on PDA at 25 ° C in darkness, attaining 67–70 mm diam. after seven days, with moderate aerial mycelia, grey in the center, white at the edge, and light yellow in reverse. Asexual morph: Conidiomata pycnidial 450–550 μm, half-buried in the culture medium, black, scattered, globose to subglobose, exuding conidia droplets from central ostioles in dark at 25 ° C. Conidiophores 18–22 × 1.3–2.6 μm, slender and rod-shaped, radiating slightly outward from the base, smooth, swollen apex. Conidiogenous cells 4–5.5 × 2.5–3 μm, brown, smooth, cylindrical to ampulliform, attenuate towards apex, phialidic. Conidia 4.2–5.8 × 2.6–3.2 µm, formed singly, oblong to ellipsoid, brown, smooth, thin-walled, apex obtuse, with an inconspicuous base. Sexual morph was not observed. Notes. Phylogenetic analysis based on the combined dataset showed that Gnomoniopsis luodingensis formed a distinct and fully supported lineage (BP / PP: 100 / 1). It appeared as the sister species to G. hainanensis with high bootstrap support (BP: 92 %), and together they clustered with G. fujianensis and G. fagacearum in a well-supported clade (BP / PP: 95 / 0.9). G. luodingensis (CGMCC 3.29462) was distinguished from Gnomoniopsis hainanensis (CFCC 54376), G. fujianensis (CGMCC 3.28229), and G. fagacearum (CFCC 54316) by 28 / 494, 27 / 548, 29 / 496 pair differences in ITS sequences. G. luodingensis is different from the phylogenetically close species G. hainanensis by its conidial size and length-width ratio (4.2–5.8 × 2.6–3.2 µm, L / W = 1.6–2.2 in G. luodingensis vs. 7.3–12.2 × 3.3–4.2 µm, L / W = 1.9–3.3 in G. hainanensis). A synopsis of morphological characteristics compared with other closely related species is presented in Table 2. Therefore, we introduce this taxon as a new species.