Rosellinia compacta, a new species similar to the white root rot fungus Rosellinia necatrix

Abstract

Rosellinia compacta is described as a new species that was discovered during a study of variation in Rosellinia necatrix in Japan using morphological and molecular characters. Rosellinia necatrix stromata and ascospores were 0.92–2.43 × 1.16–1.98 mm (mean 1.75 × 1.57 mm) and 30.5–55.9 × 5.0–10.3 μm (mean 41.8 × 6.9 μm) respectively. Rosellinia compacta had smaller stromata (1.13–1.71 × 0.99–1.36 mm; mean 1.43 × 1.16 mm) and longer ascospores ([34.0–]44.2–62.5 × 5.0–10.9 μm; mean 52.2 × 7.5 μm) than R. necatrix and also differs from other described species of Rosellinia.

• molecular phylogeny
• new species
• taxonomy
• Xylariaceae

We are grateful for the help of Dr S. Kanematsu, National Institute of Fruit Tree Science, who provided valuable comments and sequence data. We thank Dr N. Matsumoto, National Agricultural Research Center for Hokkaido Region, for critical reading of the manuscript and linguistic correction.