Phyllosticta Pers., Traite´sur les Champignons Comestibles (Paris): 147 (1818).

MycoBank number: MB 9384; Index Fungorum number: IF 9384; Facesoffungi number: FoF 00155; >2000 records (Species Fungorum 2020), several species with molecular data.

Type species: Phyllosticta cruenta (Kunze: Fr.) J. Kickxf.

Sphaeria cruenta Fr., Syst. mycol. (Lundae) 2(2): 581 (1823).

Notes: Phyllosticta is a geographically widespread genus of plant pathogenic fungi with a diverse host range and a Guignardia sexual morph (Fig. 18). Seaver (1922) used Phyllostictales and Phyllostictaceae for Phyllosticta. Phyllosticta was placed in Botryosphaeriales by Schoch et al. (2006), who proposed that Botryosphaeriaceae contained both Botryosphaeria and Phyllosticta, although no support was obtained for this relationship. Crous et al. (2006a) and Liu et al. (2012) also classified Phyllosticta in Botryosphaeriaceae. In both studies it was noted that Phyllosticta was distinct from other genera in Botryosphaeriaceae, and that these authors eventually expected it to be placed elsewhere. Wikee et al. (2013b) redefined Phyllosticta, and showed that it clusters sister to Botryosphaeriaceae, for which the older family name Phyllostictaceae was resurrected. In moving away from a dual nomenclature for fungi, the generic name Phyllosticta was chosen over Guignardia in previous studies. There are 3214 Phyllosticta epithets listed in Index Fungorum. In this entry we illustrate Phyllosticta hostae (Fig. 19).

Fig. 18 Sexual morph of Phyllosticta ellipsoidea (redrawn from Wulandari et al. 2011, MFLU 10-0475). a Section of ascoma. b Asci. c Ascospores with polar mucilaginous appendage at each end. Scale bars: 25 µm

Fig. 19 Phyllosticta hostae (JZB 3290001). a Leaf spot on rose leaf. b Front view of the colony on PDA. c Rear view of the colony on PDA. D Conidiomata in culture. e–h Conidia. Scale bars: d = 100 µm, e–h = 10 µm