CALONECTRIA-SCOPARIA AND CALONECTRIA-MORGANII SP-NOV, AND VARIATION AMONG ISOLATES OF THEIR CYLINDROCLADIUM ANAMORPHS

Cylindrocladium scoparium and C. candelabrum are important pathogens o f numerous hosts with wide geographical distributions. Single-conidial pairings of 48 isolates tentatively identified as either C. scoparium or C. candelabrum from Brazil, North America and South Africa have co nfirmed that at least two distinct species exist within this complex. These results were also confirmed with total protein discontinuous SDS -PAGE electrophoresis gels. The two species could also be distinguishe d morphologically on their vesicle morphology. C. candelabrum is accep ted as the correct name for Brazilian and South African isolates with ellipsoidal to obpyriform apical vesicles (widest below the middle). N orth American and some Brazilian isolates with ellipsoidal to pyriform apical vesicles (widest above the middle) represent C. scoparium, wit h C. ellipticum and C. brasiliensis as synonyms. Calonectria morganii is newly described as the teleomorph of Cylindrocladium scoparium. Cal onectria scoparia is shown to be the teleomorph of Cylindrocladium can delabrum.