Four New Pale-Spored Species of <i>Xylaria</i> (Xylariaceae, Xylariales) with a Key to Worldwide Species on Fallen Fruits and Seeds

<i>Xylaria</i>, a large and cosmopolitan genus of Ascomycota, plays an important ecological role in forest ecology as wood-decomposers, and serve as a source of bioactive secondary metabolites. The present work concerns a survey of <i>Xylaria</i> from Southwest China. Four ne...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Haixia Ma, Zikun Song, Xiaoyan Pan, Zhi Qu, Zhanen Yang, Yu Li, Anhong Zhu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-06-01
Series:Biology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2079-7737/11/6/885
Description
Summary:<i>Xylaria</i>, a large and cosmopolitan genus of Ascomycota, plays an important ecological role in forest ecology as wood-decomposers, and serve as a source of bioactive secondary metabolites. The present work concerns a survey of <i>Xylaria</i> from Southwest China. Four new species of <i>Xylaria</i> with pale-colored ascospores associated with fallen fruits and seeds are described and illustrated based on morphological and phylogenetic evidences. The phylogeny inferred from a combined dataset of ITS-RPB2-β-tubulin sequences supports these four species as distinct species. The four new taxa, namely <i>Xylaria</i><i>rogersii</i>, <i>X. schimicola</i>, <i>X. theaceicola</i>, and <i>X. wallichii</i>, are compared and contrasted against morphologically similar species. A dichotomous identification key to all the accepted species of <i>Xylaria</i> associated with fallen fruits and seeds is given.
ISSN:2079-7737