Elsinoe fuzhouensis J.Y. Su, Z.H. Wang & H.L. Hu, in Cao et al., Fungal Diversity 132: 436 (2025)

Index Fungorum number: IF 571788; MycoBank number: MB 571788; Facesoffungi: FoF 15309; Figs. 1, 2

Etymology – refers to Fuzhou City, the locality of the type specimen collected.

Holotype – CGMCC 3.25536.

Asexual morph: anthracnose on Ficus microcarpa. The leaves reddish-brown spots. Conidiogenous cells hyaline, ampulliform to doliiform, blastic. Conidia typically one celled, hyaline, round at the rear end, fusiform at the apical end, with one to three oil droplets, 5.47–7.12 × 2.2–3.13 µm, x̄ = 6.34 ± 0.43 × 2.58 ± 0.24 µm, and n = 50. Sexual morph: not observed.

Cultural characteristics – colonies on MEA extremely slowly growing, reaching 18 mm at 25. After 21 d in 12 h/12 h light/dark. Colony displayed red-brown, an irregular growth and wrinkled texture, no to little aerial hyphae.

Material examined – CHINA, Fujian Province, Fuzhou City, Gulou District, Yeshan Spring and Autumn Park, 26°10’20″N 119°29’15″E, 28.1 m asl, 03 May 2023, Ji-Yu Su, Zong-Hua Wang, Hong-Li Hu, FJ-R-1 (CGMCC 3.25536, holotype), FZ-R-1–2, FZ-R-1–3, FZ-R-1–4.

GenBank – CGMCC 3.25536: PP049023 (ITS), PP049250 (rpb2), PP049251 (tef1). FZ-R-1–2: PV130373 (ITS), PV166291 (rpb2), PV166294 (tef1); FZ-R-1–3: PV130374 (ITS), PV166292 (rpb2), PV166295 (tef1); FZ-R-1–4: PV130375 (ITS), PV166293 (rpb2), PV166296 (tef1).

Notes – Elsinoe fuzhouensis was isolated from diseased leaves of Ficus microcarpa. Elsinoe fic and E. fici-caricae are the two species reported on Ficus plants. However, they showed distant phylogenetic relationships with E. fuzhouen sis. Elsinoe citricola and E. fuzhouensis were distributed in the same clade in the phylogenetic tree with high support (BS = 100%, PP = 1.00). While the rpb2 sequences can separate the two species, because their sequence similarity differed by more than 3% while less than 7%. Morphologically, the colonies of E. fuzhouensis were red-brown, while E. citricola’s were yellow–brown on MEA. The spores of E. fuzhouensis are smaller than those of E. citricola (5.47–7.12 × 2.2–3.13 vs. 5.5–9 × 2.5–4.5 µm) (Fan et al. 2017). Thus, E. fuzhouensis is recognized as a new species.

Figure 1 – Elsinoe fuzhouensis (CGMCC 3.23515, holotype). a Anthracnose on leaves of Ficus microcarpa. b Anthracnose under stereo-microscope. c, d Colony on MEA. e Conidial mass on MEA. f Conidiogenous cells on MEA. g–k Conidia on MEA. Scale bars: b, e = 100 µm, f–k = 10 µm

Figure 2 – Maximum Likelihood phylogram of Elsinoe species based on a combined matrix of ITS, rpb2 and tef1 genes [Myriangium hispanicum (CBS 247.33) is the outgroup]. Numbers in front of slash stand for the Maximum Likelihood bootstrap values, and numbers behind the slash stand for the Bayesian posterior probabilities. “-” indicates that the given branches were supported less than 50% by Maximum Likelihood bootstrap or 0.93 by Bayesian analyses. The new species are in red. “T” refers to a type specimen.