Epicoccum cedri

Epicoccum cedri Manawas., Camporesi & K.D. Hyde, in Hyde et al., Fungal Diversity 87: 20 (2017)

Index Fungorum number: IF 552930; Facesofungi number: FoF 03130

Etymology: name reflects the host genus Cedrus.

Holotype: MFLU 16-1358.

Saprobic on dead branches of woody plants. Sexual morph: Undetermined. Asexual morph:  Coelomycetous. Hyphae septate. Pycnidia 156–441 μm diameter (x̄ = 224.2 μm, n = 10), solitary to confluent, globose to irregular. Conidiophores reduced to conidiogenous cells. Conidiogenous cells enteroblastic, phialidic, solitary, hyaline, smooth-walled. Conidia 3–4.3 μm × 1.6–3.1 μm (x̄ = 3.4 × 2.3 μm, n = 40), aseptate, hyaline, unicellular, subcylindrical, acutely rounded at apex. Chlamydospores 2.4–4.3 μm × 1.6–3.2 μm (x̄ = 3.4 × 2.3 μm, n = 10), light brown and black in outer wall, subglobose arising as solitary, terminal in mycelium.

            Culture characteristics: Colonies on PDA reach 65 mm diameter, after 7 days at 25 °C circular colony with filamentous margin, yellowish and pink brown, reverse black at center with brown concentric rings towards periphery.

            Material examined: ITALY, Province of Forlì-Cesena [FC], near Corniolo, Santa Sofia, on dead land branch of Cedrus deodara L. (Pinaceae), May 15 2016, E. Camporesi, IT-2974 (MFLU 16-1358, holotype), ex-type living cultures MFLUCC 17-1058, KUMCC 17-0140.

GenBank numbers ITS: KY711170, LSU: IF552930, b-tubulin: KY711168.

          Notes: Combined phylogenetic analysis of LSU and ITS sequence data place Epicoccum cedri within the clade of Epicoccum in the phoma species complex. It forms a clade with the sister taxon, E. nigrum, with 93% bootstrap support and 0.9 Bayesian posterior probabilities (Hyde et al. 2017). Epicoccum cedri differs by developing smaller-sized chlamydospores and larger pycnidia (Punithalingam et al. 1972, Boerema et al. 2004). In addition, this is the first report of Epicoccum on Cedrus species (Farr and Rossman 2017, Hyde et al. 2017).