Kirschsteiniothelia sichuanensis Y. Jin, Y.P. Chen & Maharachch., 2024

Jin, Yan, Chen, Yanpeng, Liu, Wenhui Tian Jian-Kui & Maharachchikumbura, Sajeewa S. N., 2024, Two novel species of Kirschsteiniothelia from Sichuan Province, China, Phytotaxa 664 (2), pp. 98-110 : 103-105

Kirschsteiniothelia sichuanensis Y. Jin, Y.P. Chen & Maharachch. , sp. nov. FIGURE 3

MycoBank: MB854778

Holotype:— HKAS 134908

Etymology:—The epithet “sichuanensis ” refers to the province where the fungus was collected.

Saprobic on decaying branches of an unidentified woody plant. Sexual morph: not observed. Asexual morph: Colonies on branches effuse, scattered, hairy, brown or dark brown, glistening. Conidiophores 82–194 × 5–10 µm (x = 137 × 7 µm, n=15) wide, macronematous, mononematous, solitary, cylindrical, straight or slightly curved, brown or dark brown, unbranched, 4–8-septate, smooth, slightly tapering towards the apex, rounded at the apex, truncate at the apex. Conidiogenous cells 10–22 × 6–9 µm (x = 17.67 × 7.48 µm, n=20) integrated, terminal, monoblastic, percurrent, pale brown, cylindrical. Conidia 34–54 × 8–14 µm (x = 39 × 11 µm, n=30), acrogenous, solitary, smooth, obclavate, straight or slightly curved, tapering to the apex, 2–7 euseptate, becoming brown to pale towards the apex, truncate at the base.

Culture characteristics:—Conidia germinated on PDA within 24 h. Colonies on PDA reaching 20 mm in diam. after 2 weeks at 25 °C in dark, circular, pale to dark green on the surface, with dense, velvety aerial mycelium; on reverse side black, circular, with entire margin.

Material examined:— CHINA. Sichuan Province, Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Wenchuan County, Yamen Town, Xiqiang Grand Canyon, 103°36'27" E, 31°27'53" N, elevation 2143 m, on decaying branches of an unidentified woody plant, 20 October 2021, Y.P. Chen, XQ30.1 ( HKAS 134908, holotype), ex-type culture UESTCC 24.0127.

Notes:—In the multi-locus phylogenetic tree, the newly collected isolate UESTCC 24.0127 formed a sister clade close to the K. extensum ( MFLU 21-0130). However, they differ in both morphological characteristics and molecular data. The conidia of UESTCC 24.0127 are shorter than those of K. extensum (34–54 vs. 45–120 µm), and the ITS sequence identity between them is only 94.92% (448/472, 2 gaps) ( Jayawardena et al. 2022). Therefore, we identified Kirschsteiniothelia sichuanensis as a new species.

Figures

FIGURE 3. Kirschsteiniothelia sichuanensis (HKAS 134908).a.Natural substrates;b, c. Colonies on naturalsubstrates;d.Conidiophores; e–j. Conidiophores and conidia; k, l. Conidia; m, n. Colonies on PDA media after 3 weeks (m = front and n = back views). Scale bar: d–l = 20 μm.