Diaporthe foeniculina

Diaporthe foeniculina (Sacc.) Udayanga & Castl., in Udayanga, Castlebury, Rossman & Hyde, Persoonia 32: 95 (2014)

Index Fungorum number: IF 803929; Facesofungi number: FoF 04061

Pathogen on stems, fruit, leaves and spines. Sexual morph: Udayanga et al. (2014). Asexual morph: Conidiomata (150–)300 × 100 μm, immersed, pycnidial, globose to subglobose, visible as brown to black, scattered, solitary or in groups, with tapering perithecial necks barely protruding through epidermis, mostly embedded in tissue, often with a yellowish, drop-like conidial cirrus extruding from ostiole. Peridium parenchymatous, consisting > 4 layers of hyaline to light brown cells of textura angularis. Paraphyses lacking. Conidiophores hyaline, smooth, unbranched, cylindrical, straight to sinuous. Conidiogenous cells phialidic, cylindrical, terminal, with slightly tapering towards apex. Conidia (6.8–)7.5–8.7 × 1.8–2.1(–2.5) μm (x̄ =7.7 × 2.4 μm), aseptate, hyaline, smooth-walled, ovate to ellipsoidal, 2–3-guttulate, base subtruncate.

Culture characteristics: Colonies on PDA reaching 7 cm diam after 4 weeks at 25 °C, white, sparse aerial mycelium, yellow pigmentation developing in reverse centre.

Material examined: ITALY, Province of Forli-Cesena [FC], Monte Pallareto, Meldola, on dead aerial spines of Rosa canina L. (Rosaceae), 15 December 2014, Erio Camporesi IT 2298 (MFLU 15-0227); living cultures, MFLUCC 15-0159.

GenBank: ITS: MG828892, LSU: MG922547, SSU: MG922550, RPB2: MG922553, BTUB: MG843875

Notes: Diaporthe foeniculina (MFLUCC 15-0159) was found on spines of Rosa canina in Italy. Our strain has the same characteristics with D. foeniculina (CBS 111553) which was introduced by Udayanga et al. (2014) in having hyaline guttulate alpha conidia, as well as the size and shape of pycnidia and conidia. However, Udayanga et al. (2014) also reported the sexual stage of D. foeniculina as globose to subglobose, scattered, with tapering ascomatal necks barely protruding through epidermis, with unitunicate, cylindrical to clavate asci (8-spored), and 2-celled, hyaline ascospores, often with four guttules, elongated to elliptical, and recorded this species on wide host range (Acacia, Acer, Actinidia deliciosa, Aspalathus linearis, Bougainvillea spectabilis, Camellia sinensis, Castanea, Citrus limon, C. limonia, Crataegus, Diospyros, Foeniculum vulgare, Fuchsia, Hydrangea, Juglans, Malus, Olea, Prunus, Pyrus, Quercus, Rhus, Ribes, Vitis vinifera and Wisteria sinensis). Phylogenetic analyses using combined ITS, LSU sequence data analysis demonstrate that our strain is D. foeniculina (Wanasinghe et al. 2018). Thus, this is the first record of D. foeniculina on spines of Rosa canina.