Taxonomic status of Fusicoccum amygdali and Phomopsis amygdalina

A comparative study was done in Spain of canker and withering of branches in almond and peach trees. Similar diseases of these fruit trees, described by several authors and attributed to Fusicoccum amygdali and Phomopsis amygdalina, suggests that these fungi are identical. Spanish isolates produced phialidic conidiogenous cells and occasionally β-conidia typical of the genus Phomopsis. A study of the type specimen of F. amygdali reveals that it also belongs in Phomopsis. Phomopsis amygdali (Del.) Tuset & Portilla comb.nov. is proposed to accommodate the fungus; Phomopsis amygdalina Canonaco is reduced to synonymy with it.