IMA Fungus 4(2): 201-204, doi: 10.5598/imafungus.2013.04.02.05
Passalora stromatica sp. nov. associated with leaf spots of Tithonia diversifolia in Brazil
Robert Barreto‡, Bruno E. De Miranda§, Lidiane L. Duarte§, Robert W. Barreto§‡ Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, Brazil§ Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Departamento de Fitopatologia, Viçosa, Brazil
© Robert Barreto, Bruno De Miranda, Lidiane Duarte, Robert Barreto. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits to copy and distribute the article for non-commercial purposes, provided that the article is not altered or modified and the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Barreto R, De Miranda BE, Duarte LL, Barreto RW (2013) Passalora stromatica sp. nov. associated with leaf spots of Tithonia diversifolia in Brazil. IMA Fungus 4(2): 201-204. https://doi.org/10.5598/imafungus.2013.04.02.05 |  |
Abstract
Tithonia diversifolia, a member of Compositae native to Central America that produces showy sunflower-like flowers, became an invasive weed in other continents after it was introduced as an ornamental. Little is known about fungal pathogens infecting this plant. Knowledge of its mycobiota is of interest for future biocontrol programmes for T. diversifolia. In Brazil, a cercosporoid hyphomycete was found associated with intense leaf-spotting of this plant. Based on morphological and molecular data it was recognized as representing a new species of Passalora, and the name Passalora stromatica sp.nov. is introduced here for this taxon. This fungus is described and illustrated herein. It is possible that this fungus is playing a role in Brazil in reducing the invasiveness of T. diversifolia as, contrarily to what has been reported for countries in Africa and Asia, it remains mostly as a garden escape or rural plant in Brazil.
Keywords
Anamorphic fungi, cercosporoid fungi, conidial fungi, dematiaceous hyphomycetes, ITS, LSU, wild sunflower