Diaporthe bauhiniicola Ning Jiang & Y. Q. Zhu 2024, sp. nov.

Diaporthe bauhiniicola Ning Jiang & Y. Q. Zhu sp. nov. Fig. 3 Holotype. China • Guangdong Province, Guangzhou City, Luhu Park, 23 ° 9 ' 11.15 " N, 113 ° 16 ' 46.01 " E, 92 m asl, on diseased leaves of Bauhinia variegata, 8 Aug 2022, Yong Li, Chengbin Wang & Yaquan Zhu, (holotype: CAF 800094; ex-type culture: CFCC 58154). Etymology. Named after the host genus, Bauhinia. Description. Conidiomata formed on PDA pycnidial, scattered to aggregated, black, erumpent, raising above surface of culture medium, subglobose, 150–300 μm diam., exuding white or yellowish creamy conidial droplets from central ostioles after 30 days at 25 ° C. Conidiophores reduced to conidiogenous cells. Conidiogenous cells hyaline, unbranched, septate, straight, slightly tapering towards the apex, 6.0–15.0 × 1.5–4.0 μm. Alpha conidia hyaline, aseptate, ellipsoidal to spindle-shaped, biguttulate or with one guttulate, 4.5–7.0 × 2.0–3.0 μm. Beta conidia and gamma conidia not observed. Teleomorph not observed. Culture characteristics. Colonies covering entire plate after 2 weeks. On PDA with profuse aerial mycelium, white surface, reverse fulvous. On MEA with fluffy aerial mycelium, dirty white surface, reverse ochreous. On SNA white sparse aerial mycelium, surface and reverse white. Additional material examined. China • Guangdong Province, Guangzhou City, Luhu Park, 23 ° 9 ' 11.15 " N, 113 ° 16 ' 46.01 " E, 92 m asl, on diseased leaves of Bauhinia variegata, 8 Aug 2022, Yong Li, Chengbin Wang & Yaquan Zhu, living culture GZ 13 B. Notes. Two strains representing Diaporthe bauhiniicola clustered in a clade distinct from its closest phylogenetic neighbour, D. sennae (Fig. 1). D. sennae has been reported from the host Senna bicapsularis in China (Yang et al. 2017). D. bauhiniicola differs from D. sennae by wider alpha conidia (4.5–7.0 × 2.0–3.0 μm in D. bauhiniicola vs. 5.0–6.5 × 1.5–1.8 μm in D. sennae) (Yang et al. 2017). Diaporthe bauhiniicola differs from D. sennae in nucleotide sequence data (18 / 529 in ITS, 5 / 490 in cal, 15 / 351 in tef 1, 14 / 677 in tub 2) (Yang et al. 2017).