Alternaria Nees, Syst. Pilze (Würzburg): 72 (1817).
Index Fungorum number: IF 7106; MycoBank number: MB 7106; Facesoffungi number: FoF 00501; 589 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2019), >50 species with molecular data.
Type species – Alternaria tenuis Nees, Syst. Pilze., t. 5:68 (1817).
Notes – Alternaria is a ubiquitous genus. Diagnostic morphological characters include the production of dark-coloured multi-celled conidia with longitudinal and transverse septa (phaeodictyospores), and a beak of tapering apical cells. The sexual morph was formerly known in Lewia. Based on the combined multi-gene analysis by Ariyawansa et al. (2015c), Alternaria consists of 24 internal clades and six monotypic lineages revealing the paraphyletic nature within the Alternaria complex.