Corynespora Güssow, Zeitschrift für Pflanzenkrankheiten und Pflanzenschutz 16: 10 (1906).

MycoBank number: MB 7795; Index Fungorum number: IF 7795; Facesoffungi number: FoF 06663; 175 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2020), 10 species with molecular data.

Type species – Corynespora cassiicola (Berk. & M.A. Curtis) C.T. Wei, Mycol. Pap. 34: 5 (1950).

≡ Helminthosporium cassiicola Berk. & M.A. Curtis [as ‘cassiaecola’], in Berkeley, J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 10(no. 46): 361 (1868) [1869].

= Corynespora mazei Güssow, Zeitschrift für Pflanzenkrankheiten und Pflanzenschutz 16: 13 (1906).

Notes – The type species of Corynespora is an important pathogenic fungus which can cause target spot worldwide (Koenning et al. 2006, Schlub et al. 2009, Fulmer et al. 2012). This genus has been revealed as polyphyletic in several molecular studies (Crous et al. 2015d, Hyde et al. 2016, Voglmayr & Jaklitsch 2017). Voglmayr & Jaklitsch (2017) revisited three similar genera, Corynespora, Exosporium and Helminthosporium. Some Corynespora species, for example, C. caespitosa, C. endiandrae, C. leucadendri and C. olivacea were transferred to Helminthosporium. Although Voglmayr & Jaklitsch (2017) placed Corynespora in Corynesporascaceae, they did not mention the relationship between Corynespora and Corynesporasca. There are few DNA sequence data of Corynespora species available in GenBank for phylogenetic purposes and hence more collections and sequence data are needed.

Species