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Abstract
A new ascomycete fungus, with long-necked perithecia having central ostioles and striate ascospores, was isolated from flowerheads of Protea burchellii and P. laurifolia in South Africa and is described here as Rhynchostoma proteae sp. nov. Sequence data obtained from the small-subunit ribosomal DNA (SSU nrDNA) place this fungus with 100% bootstrap support in a clade containing the type species of Rhynchostoma, R. minutum. A similar fungus with verruculose ascospores also was observed on a member of the Proteaceae from Australia, Lomatia polymorpha, which is described here as Rhynchomeliola lomatiae sp. nov. These two species are illustrated and contrasted with a third species from Proteaceae, Rhynchomeliola australiense, known from Grevillea in Australia.
The authors are grateful to the Western Cape Nature Conservation Board for permission to collect plants, the curators of BPI for lending herbarium specimens to Drs. JE Taylor and PW Crous. We thank Drs. K Winka and OE Eriksson at Umeå University, Sweden, for their helpful advice in improving this manuscript.