Pseudofusicoccum Mohali, Slippers & M.J. Wingf., Stud. Mycol. 55: 249 (2006).

Index Fungorum number: IF 555584; MycoBank number: MB 555584; Facesoffungi number: FoF 05299; 8 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2020), 7 species with molecular data.

Type species: Pseudofusicoccum stromaticum (Mohali, Slippers & M.J. Wingf.) Mohali, Slippers & M.J. Wingf., in Crous et al., Stud. Mycol. 55: 249 (2006).

≡ Fusicoccum stromaticum Mohali, Slippers & M.J. Wingf., Mycol. Res. 110(4): 408 (2006).

Notes: The type species of Pseudofusicoccum, P. stromaticum was introduced as Fusicoccum stromaticum and was distinguished from other species by its large conidiomata, the ability to grow at 35°C, and thick-walled conidia. Crous et al. (2006a) recognized that its conidia were covered by a mucous sheath, which is lacking in all species of Fusicoccium. Therefore, they introduced Pseudofusicoccum as a new genus to accommodate this taxon. Pseudofusicoccum adansoniae, P. ardesiacum and P. kimberleyense were proposed and distinguished from others by production of a pigment in culture and the size of conidia (Pavlic et al. 2008). Later, P. olivaceum was identified as a new species because of the discrepancy between ITS and tef1 BLAST results (Mehl et al. 2011). Pseudofusicoccum artocarpi was introduced as its conidia were clearly longer than others (Trakunyingcharoen et al. 2015). Pseudofusicoccum violaceum is distinctive because of the violet/purple pigment formed in culture and this has not been observed in any other Pseudofusicoccum species (Mehl et al. 2011). Pseudofusicoccum africanum was introduced as it is different from its neighbor P. violaceum by unique fixed alleles in ITS and tef1 (Jami et al. 2018). Yang et al. (2017) raised the genus to familial status as Pseudofusicoccaceae. The phylogenies reported in Phillips et al. (2019), as well as those of Minnis et al. (2012) and Liu et al. (2017), place Pseudofusicoccum in the same clade as Phyllosticta species. In view of this consistent relationship, together with the evolutionary divergence evidence as well as morphological data presented in Phillips et al. (2019), Pseudofusicoccum is considered to be an additional genus within Phyllostictaceae (Fig. 20).

Fig. 20 Morphology of Pseudofusicoccum. a, b Conidiophores and conidia of P. stromaticum. c–e Conidiomatal wall, conidiophore and conidia of P. africanum. f, g Conidia becoming brown and septate when mature and young conidia of P. artocarpi. h–j Conidiogenous cells, germinating conidia and conidia of P. adansoniae Scale bars: a = 5 μm, b, c, e, f–j = 10 μm, d = 25 μm

Species