Two new species of Dendrostoma (Erythrogloeaceae, Diaporthales) associated with Castaneamollissima canker disease in China.

The genus Dendrostoma is known to inhabit tree barks associated with branch canker diseases in China and several countries of Europe. Previous studies indicated that species of Dendrostoma prefer inhabiting fagaceous hosts, especially species of Castanea . In the present study, we obtained four isolates from cankered branches of Chinese chestnut ( C.mollissima ) in Rizhao City, Shandong Province, China. Morphological comparisons and phylogenetical analyses of a combined ITS- tef1 - rpb2 sequence matrix were conducted, which revealed two new species named Dendrostomarizhaoense sp. nov . and D.tianii sp. nov. The new taxa are compared with other Dendrostoma species and comprehensive descriptions and illustrations are provided herein.