Neofusicoccum occulatum Sakalidis & T. Burgess

Neofusicoccum occulatum Sakalidis & T. Burgess View in CoL , Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 60 (3): 340 (2011)

Fig. 13 View Figure 13

Description.

Sexual morph: Not observed. Asexual morph: Fruiting bodies densely distributed on dead twigs of Platycladus orientalis . Conidiomata pycnidial immersed in bark surface, aggregated, unilocular or multilocular, subglobose, black, 58–194 µm diam. Conidiophores reduced to conidiogenous cells. Conidiogenous cells thin-walled, hyaline, ovoid to cylindrical, 6.1–19.5 × 1.0–4.3 µm (av. ± S. D. = 13.3 ± 3.7 × 2.8 ± 0.9). Conidia unicellular, hyaline, fusiform to subellipsoid, containing granular inclusions, occasionally with 1–2 oil droplets, 14.0–22.9 × 4.3–8.1 µm (av. ± S. D. = 19.8 ± 1.9 × 6.1 ± 0.7).

Cultural characteristics.

On PDA at 25 ° C under dark conditions, colonies reached approximately 60 mm in diameter after 7 days of incubation, exhibiting dense, floccose mycelium. After 10 days, the aerial hyphae developed a smoke-gray coloration, while the reverse side of colonies turned grayish-brown. With prolonged cultivation, the mycelium darkened to blackish-brown, accompanied by black pigmentation on the colony reverse. At approximately 20 days, grayish-white to smoke-black pycnidia formed on the medium, often embedded in mycelial mats and appearing as irregular masses or subglobose structures. At maturity, these pycnidia produced pale yellow conidial masses.

Specimens examined.

China • Beijing City, Changping District, Mangshan National Forest Park, Ming Tombs , 40°16'5"N, 116°16'51"E, on the diseased branches of Platycladus orientalis , 23 November 2024, Z. X. Bi & W. K. Gao, BJFC -S 2579 , living culture CFCC 72629 GoogleMaps ; China • Beijing City, Changping District, Mangshan National Forest Park, Ming Tombs , 40°16'5"N, 116°16'57"E, on the dead branches of P. orientalis , 23 November 2024, Z. X. Bi & W. K. Gao, BJFC -S 2580 , living culture CFCC 72636 GoogleMaps .

Notes.

Neofusicoccum occulatum was introduced by Sakalidis et al. (2011) and was isolated from Eucalyptus spp. and Wollemia nobilis in Australia. Previous studies have demonstrated that this fungus is a pathogen causing canker and shoot blight in Platycladus orientalis ( Liu et al. 2022; Guo 2023). It has also been recorded on host plants such as Prunus persica and Dendrobium chrysanthum ( Ma et al. 2021; Zhou et al. 2024). Based on comprehensive phylogenetic and morphological analyses, strains CFCC 72629 and CFCC 72636 were identified as Neofusicoccum occulatum .