Diaporthe foeniculina

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

Index Fungorum number: IF803929; Facesofungi number: FoF 02183

≡ Phoma foeniculina Sacc., Michelia 2(no. 6): 95 (1880)

Epitype: PORTUGAL, Madeira, Serra da Agua, at base of 2-yr-old stem of Foeniculum vulgare, August 2001, A.J.L. Phillips, LISE 94791, ex-epitype culture CBS 111553 = DP0391; MBT175961.

Saprobic on dead aerial stem of Asparagus spp. Sexual morph: Undetermined. Asexual morph: Coelomycetous. Conidiomata 100–200 μm high, 80–200 μm diam., pycnidial, solitary, scattered or gregarious, globose to subglobose, semi-immersed to immersed, sometimes erumpent, unilocular, thin-walled, visible as small round to oval dark brown to black dots on the host surface. Pycnidial walls composed 3–4 layers, similarly dense at the apex and base, outer 2–3 layers dark brown to black, inner 1–2 layers hyaline, with thin-walled cells of textura angularis. Conidiogenous cells 4–7 μm long × 2–4 μm wide, hyaline, phialidic, globose. Conidia 5–10 × 1– 4 μm wide (x̄ = 8 × 3 μm, n = 20), ellipsoidal to cylindrical, rounded at both ends, hyaline, straight or slightly bent at the middle, 1-septate to aseptate, thin- and smooth-walled, guttulate.

Culture Characteristics: Colonies on PDA reaching 80 mm diam. after 14 days at 25 °C, circular colony, white, without any diffusible pigments.

Material examined: ITALY, Province of Forlì-Cesena [FC], Trivella-Predappio, on dead aerial stem of Asparagus spp. (Asparagaceae), 21 November 2017, E. Camporesi, IT 3339b (MFLU 17–0997), living culture, JZB 320145, JZB 320146.

Known hosts and distribution: Occurring on various hosts worldwide (e.g. Citrus, Foeniculum vulgare, Glycine max, Malus domestica, Prunus and Vitis (Farr and Rossman 2020).

GenBank Numbers: ITS: MN944411.

Note: The isolate obtained from dead aerial stem of Asparagus spp. is identified as Diaporthe foeniculina with support from both morphology and phylogeny. Diaporthe foeniculina has been reported in many economically important host plants in worldwide (Farr and Rossman 2020). This is the first record of D. foeniculina from Asparagus from Italy.