Lasiodiplodia theobromae (Pat.) Griffon & Maubl.

MycoBank number: MB 188476; Index Fungorum number: IF 188476; Facesoffungi number: FoF 00167;

Saprobic on dead leaves of Dracaena fragrans. Sexual morph: Undetermined. Asexual morph: Conidiomata 150–200 μm high× 146–200μm diam. (x̅ = 175×173 μm n = 10), pycnidial, semi-immersed, unilocular, solitary, scattered, globose or subglobose, dark brown. Conidiomata wall 20–30μm wide, outer layers dark brown to black, thickwalled, inner layers thin-walled, pale brown to hyaline, comprising 2–3 layers of dark brown cells of textura angularis. Paraphyses up to 40 μm long, 2–3 μm wide, hyaline, septate, cylindrical, occasionally branched, ends rounded. Conidiogenous cells holoblastic, hyaline, thin-walled, smooth, cylindrical. Conidiogenous cells 19–21× 3–6 μm (x̅ = 20 × 4.5 μm n= 15), holoblastic, hyaline, cylindrical. Conidia 20–30 μm×12–13 μm (x̅ = 25×12.5 μm n=30), initially hyaline and aseptate when immature, becoming medianly 1-euseptate, dark brown, thick-walled, ellipsoid to obovoid, base truncate or rounded, with longitudinal striations from apex to base.

Culture characteristics – Conidia germinating on PDA within 4–5 h. Colonies growing on PDA reaching 45 mm diam. After 1 day at 25 °C in the dark, initially whitened in a few days, after 7 days becoming grey, fast growing, raised, fluffy, dense, filamentous, reaching the edge of the Petri-dish after 2 days.

Material examined – THAILAND, Chumphon Province, Phato District, Pang Wan, on dead leaves of Dracaena fragrans, 2 September 2017, Napalai Chaiwan, NCCP1, MFLU 1***–0730, living culture MFLUCC 12–****.

Host – Known to inhabit fruits, leaves and stems of multiple plant genera in multiple families (Farr et al. 2016) and dead leaves of Dracaena fragrans. (current study).

Distribution – Widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions (Farr et al. 2016).

GenBank accession number – ITS: ***, RPB2: waiting sequence, TEF1:***, TUB: waiting sequence

Notes: The morphology of this collection is similar to L. theobromae. It possesses septate paraphyses, the conidia are slightly smaller and narrower than those reported by Alves et al. (2008) for the neotype. L. theobromae reported by Alves et al. (2008) report from varies plants host but no report from Dracaena sp. However, phylogenetic analyses of L. theobromae groups our strain thus the collection is named as L. theobromae. This is the first report of L. theobromae from Dracaena fragrans in Thailand.

Figure*** Lasiodiplodia theobromae (NCCP1) a. Conidiomata on dead leaves of Dracaena fragrans. b–c. Conidioma d–e. Peridium (Conidioma wall) f–g. Paraphyses h–l. Conidiogenous cells m–r. Conidia s. Mature conidia Scale bars: a=100 μm. b–d=50 μm. e–g=20 μm. h–l=10 μm.