Mucoharknessia anthoxanthi Dissanayake, Camporesi & K.D. Hyde, sp. nov.
Index Fungorum number: IF 551752, Facesoffungi number: FoF 01651, Fig. 2
Etymology: Referring to the host Anthoxanthum odoratum L.
Holotype: MFLU 15–3477

Saprobic on dead stems of Anthoxanthum odoratum. Sexual morph Undetermined. Asexual morph Conidiomata 240 – 320 μm high × 215 – 280 μm diam., globose, immersed to erumpent, brown, wall of 3 – 6 layers of brown textura angularis. Conidiophores reduced to conidiogenous cells. Conidiogenous cells 7 – 14 × 4 – 5 μm lining the inner cavity, hyaline, smooth, ampulliform to subcylindrical, proliferating percurrently at the apex. Paraphyses 25 – 45 × 3 – 4 μm intermingled among conidiogenous cells, hyaline to pale brown, smooth to verruculose, subcylindrical with obtuse ends. Conidia 18 – 30 × 8 – 10 μm (x̄ = 24 × 9 μm, n = 30), solitary, hyaline, smoothwalled, guttulate, fusoid – ellipsoid to subcylindrical, straight to curved, apex apiculate, tapering at base, apex with flared mucoid appendage, up to 20 μm long, 15 μm diam.

Material examined: ITALY. Province of Forlì-Cesena [FC], Passo delle Forche – Galeata, on dead stem of Anthoxanthum odoratum (Poaceae), 24 November 2012, Erio Camporesi IT 981 (MFLU 15–3477), ex-type living cultures MFLUCC 15– 0904, CGMCC.

Notes: The genus Mucoharknessia was introduced in Botryosphaeriaceae by Crous et al. (2015b) based on Cortaderia selloana L. from Argentina. Based on multi-gene phylogenetic analyses (Fig. 1), our isolate clustered close to M.cortaderiae. In this paper we introduce a new species, Mucoharknessia anthoxanthi based on its distinct morphological characters.

Fig. 1 Phylogram generated from Maximum Parsimony analysis based on combined ITS and LSU sequence data of species of Botryosphaeriaceae. Parsimony bootstrap support values for MP ≥ 70 % are shown above the nodes and Bayesian posterior probabilities ≥ 95 % are indicated in bold branches. The tree is rooted.

Fig. 2 Mucoharknessia anthoxanthi (holotype) a Appearance of conidiomata on host surface b, c Sections through conidiomata d – f Immature conidia attached to conidiogenous cells g Conidia with mucoid appendage h – l Conidia with mucoid appendage stained in Indian ink. Scale bars: b, c = 100 μm, d = 50 μm, e – l = 25 μm.