A new species of Lophodermium on needles of mountain pine (Pinus mugo) from the Giant Mountains in Poland
Abstract
A fungus tentatively identified as Lophodermium sp. was repeatedly isolated from living secondary needles of mountain pine (Pinus mugo) in the Giant Mountains of Poland. Needles showed symptoms of yellow spots, gradual discolouration and premature falling in July.
Thin black zone lines, subepidermal conidiomata and partially subepidermal ascomata morphologically similar to L. pinastri occurred on fallen needles in litter below the same trees. Evidence from internal transcribed spacers of rDNA and the gene for actin showed that strains isolated from symptom-bearing needles and fruiting structures were identical, and differed from other Lophodermium species known from pine, including L. pinastri.
The fungus differs subtly from L. pinastri, for example, in the lengths of its conidiomata, ascomata and asci, but can be reliably distinguished only by molecular data. Known only on mountain pine from the Giant Mountains, it is described here as L. corconticum sp. nov.