Sarocladium serpentinicola K. W. Cheng & H. A. Ariyaw. 2025, sp. nov.

Sarocladium serpentinicola K. W. Cheng & H. A. Ariyaw. sp. nov. Fig. 28 Typification. TAIWAN • Guanshan Township, Taitung County, 23°02'14.8"N, 121°11'22.6"E, serpentine soil in rice field, 3 rd November 2022, K. W. Cheng, holotype, NTUPPMH 22-223 (Permanently preserved in a metabolically inactive state), ex-holotype NTUPPMCC 22-290. Etymology. Named after the serpentine soil from which the species was isolated. Description. Sexual morph undetermined. Asexual morph Conidia were observed on WA. Conidiophores solitary, hyaline, straight to slightly flexuous, smooth-walled, arising from hyphal ropes or vegetative hyphae. Phialides subulate, hyaline, wide at the base, with, 23–32 µm long. Schizophialides not observed. Conidia unicellular, cylindrical with rounded ends, hyaline, smooth-walled, 1 - celled, few with inconspicuous 1 to 2 guttules on the end (s), sometimes aggregated in clusters forming a slimy head, 3.2–5.5 µm × 1.2–1.8 µm (x ̄ = 4.3 × 1.5 µm, L / W ratio = 2.92, n = 30). Adelophialides observed, 3.6–8.8 µm long and sporulated obvious guttules and larger conidia, 3.8–7.0 µm × 1.6–2.5 µm (x ̄ = 5.3 × 2.0 µm, L / W ratio = 2.73, n = 30). Culture characteristics. Colony exhibit slow growth, reaching 30 mm diam with flat, pale orange, slightly wrinkled in the center, slimy, and smooth margin. The reverse side of the colony displayed similar characteristics. Notes. Sarocladium serpentinicola introduced in this study forms a distinct clade with moderately support (82 % / 0.91) based on multi-locus phylogenetic analysis (Fig. 27). Moreover, S. serpentinicola forms significant genetic divergence to its closer relatives, ex-type strain of S. pseudostrictum (CBS 137660) with 96.0 % identity in the ITS region (460 / 474 bp, including 5 gaps) and 96.2 % identity in the tef- 1 gene (777 / 808 bp). It also exhibits notable divergence from S. formosanum, another novel species described in this study, with 91.3 % identity in the rpb 2 gene (648 / 710 bp) and 96.9 % identity in the tef- 1 gene (783 / 808 bp). S. serpentinicola NTUPPMCC 22-290 can be distinguished from its close relatives S. pseudostrictum and S. graminicola by the presence of adelophialides and the production of larger conidia from these structures (Fig. 28; Giraldo et al. 2015; Anjos et al. 2020).