Additions to Karst Fungi 1: Botryosphaeria minutispermatia sp. nov., from Guizhou Province, China

Abstract

Botryosphaeria is a species rich genus of plant saprobes, pathogens and endophytes, with a global distribution, on a wide variety of mainly woody hosts. Recent studies have discovered a wide-ranging diversity of species in Botryosphaeria. This work adds to this increasing body of knowledge on the genus, by introducing a new species of Botryosphaeria occurring on dead wood in a terrestrial habitat in Guizhou Province, of the south China Karst region. Analysis of a combined ITS and EF1-α sequence data matrix was applied to infer the phylogenetic position of the new species in Botryosphaeria and B. minutispermatia is described and illustrated based on morphology and phylogeny. The new species is characterized by erumpent, botryose, clustered, ostiolate ascomata, bitunicate, clavate asci, filiform, rarely branched pseudoparaphyses, fusiform, hyaline ascospores and a fusicoccum-like asexual morph produced in culture and formed a distinct clade within the genus Botryosphaeria.