taxonID	type	description	language	source
BC673A2AFFD95D50FF5CFAE6E66FFD92.taxon	description	alt. 740 m, on bark of Acer sp. in temperate coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forest, 28 Aug 2014, Col. 177, H. - X. Ma (FCATAS 838). Teleomorph: — Stromata erumpent through the bark singly or in groups, pulvinate or peltate, flat-topped, with irregular margins, 2 – 7 mm diam, 1.5 – 3 mm thick, often gregarious and coherent together, attached to the substrate on a narrow central connective or a short stipe; surface cinnamon brown to dark brown, with conspicuous cracked, mostly longitudinally, with slight perithecial contours; texture soft; interior white, solid, woody. Perithecia ovoid, 0.6 – 0.7 mm high × 0.5 – 0.6 mm diam. Ostioles black, slightly papillate. Asci with eight ascospores obliquely arranged in uniseriate manner, cylindrical, long-stipitate, (140 –) 155 – 165 (– 185) µm total length, the spore-bearing part (95 –) 105 – 114 (– 120) µm long × (9 –) 9.5 – 10.5 (– 11.5) µm diam., the stipes 30 – 60 µm long, with apical ring bluing in Melzer’s iodine reagent, urn-shaped, 5.0 – 6.8 µm high × 3.5 – 4.7 µm diam. Ascospores brown, dark-brown to black, unicellular, ellipsoid or fusiform, inequilateral, with narrowly rounded ends, occasionally minutely pinched on one end, smooth, (19.0 –) 20.5 – 22.0 (– 23.6) × (7.6 –) 8.5 – 9.5 (– 10.5) µm (M = 20.9 × 9.1 μm, n = 30), with a conspicuous spiralling germ slit less than spore-length; no sheath or appendages visible in India ink. Additional specimens examined: — CHINA. Jilin Province, Changbai Mountain Natural Reserve, Hanconggou, 42 ° 25 ′ N & 128 ° 12 ′ E, alt. 760 m, on bark of Acer sp. in the temperate coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forest, 27 Aug 2014, Col. 183, H. - X. Ma (FCATAS 839). Remarks: — Xylaria acericola is a member of penzigioid Xylaria group, which is characterized by having small, subsessile stromata attached to the substrate by a narrow connective (Rawla & Narula 1983, Ju et al. 2012). Fournier (2014) described a species, named “ Rosellinia ” callosa Winter from France, which has a similar stromatal gross morphology. The fungus is on the collar of a small dead trunk of Acer campestre, and has longer (23.2 – 28.4 µm vs. 20.5 – 22.0 µm), thinner (6.5 – 7.9 µm vs. 8.5 – 9.5 µm), fusiform to navicular ascospores (Me = 25.5 × 7.2 µm vs. 20.9 × 9.1 μm), and with an oblique, straight to slightly sigmoid germ slit, while the Chinese collections are on the bark of living tree of Acer sp., and has shorter, wider, ellipsoid or fusiform ascospores with a spiral germ slit. Unfortunately, DNA sequences of the France material are not available. Morphologically, X. acericola is similar to Xylaria lechatii Y. M. Ju, H. M. Hsieh, J. D. Rogers & J. Fournier, but the latter has smaller ascospores (12 – 15 × 6.5 – 8 µm) with a straight, spore-length germ slit, smaller perithecia (0.3 – 0.4 mm diam × 0.4 – 0.5 mm high), and smaller ascus apical ring (3 µm high and 4 µm broad), and occurring in French West Indies (Ju et al. 2012). The molecular phylogeny did not reveal any contradictions in relation to the morphological data (Ju et al. 2012).	en	Ma, Hai-Xia, Qu, Zhi, Peng, Mingkai, Li, Yu (2020): Two penzigioid Xylaria species described from China based on morphological and molecular characters. Phytotaxa 436 (1): 36-44, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.436.1.3, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.436.1.3
BC673A2AFFDB5D57FF5CFD44E3D9FD92.taxon	description	Specimen examined: — CHINA. Sichuan Province, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Region, Daocheng County, Yading Natural Reserve, 28 ° 21 ′ N & 100 ° 9 ′ E, alt. 3500 m, on rotten wood in the subalpine coniferous forest, 5 Sep 2015, Col. Q 9, H. - X. Ma (FCATAS 764). Remarks: — Xylaria sibirica was originally described by Ju et al. (2009) on branches from Russian Far East. This species was reported by Vasilyeva (1998) as Hypoxylon enteroleucum (Speg.) P. Martin. However, H. enteroleucum differs from X. sibirica in having light brown, narvicular ascospores and widely diffused stromata. The Chinese collection matches well the description in Ju et al. (2009) in morphology, and the phylogenetic analyses of ITS rDNA and β-tubulin sequences confirm that it is conspecific with X. sibirica (Ju et al. 2009). Phylogenetically, X. sibirica is closely related to X. lechatii judging from the available data (Ju et al. 2012). However, X. lechatii can be distinguished by its slightly smaller ascospores (12 – 15 × 6.5 – 8 µm) with a straight spore-length germ slit.	en	Ma, Hai-Xia, Qu, Zhi, Peng, Mingkai, Li, Yu (2020): Two penzigioid Xylaria species described from China based on morphological and molecular characters. Phytotaxa 436 (1): 36-44, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.436.1.3, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.436.1.3
