Botryosphaeria and Fusicoccum species associated with ripe fruit rot of Actinidia deliciosa (kiwifruit) in New Zealand

Three cultural types of Fustcoeeum Corda that fell within the broad concept of the anamorph of Botryosphaeria dothidea (Mougeot ex Fries) Cesati & de Notaris were isolated repeatedly from ripe fruits of Actinidta delictosa.They were stable taxa occurring together over a wide geographic range, and differing in their cultural characteristics (including conidial size and shape), in the stage of fruit ripeness at which their lesions first developed, and in their sensitivity to benzimidazole fungicides.Cultures of conidial and single ascospore isolates from Fustcoeccum and Botryosphaeria Cesati & de Notaris fructifications found abundantly in kiwifruit orchards were identical with two of the cultural types from fruit rots.These two cultural types corresponded to small, but consistent, differences in ascospore size.The fungi are described as: B. dothidea (anamorph = F. aeseult Corda); B. parva sp.nov.(anamorph = F. parvum sp.nov.); and F. luteum sp.nov.All three species had phialidic conidiogenesis, with the conidiogenous cells proliferating percurrently, but firstformed conidia appeared to be produced holoblastically.Because the current concept of Fustcoceum is probably based on such first-formed conidia, the generic concept is modified to include phialidic conidiogenesis; Macrophomopsis Petrak is synonymised with Fusicoccum, and M. coronillae (Desmaziéres) Petrak, the type species, is a taxonomic synonym of F. aescult.