New Fusarium species from the Kruger National Park, South Africa

Abstract

Three new Fusarium species, F. convolutans, F. fredkrugeri, and F. transvaalense (Ascomycota, Hypocreales, Nectriaceae) are described from soils collected in a catena landscape on a research supersite in the Kruger National Park, South Africa. The new taxa, isolated from the rhizosphere of three African herbaceous plants, Kyphocarpa angustifolia, Melhania acuminata, and Sida cordifolia, are described and illustrated by means of morphological and multilocus molecular analyses based on sequences from five DNA loci (CAL, EF-1 α, RPB1, RPB2 and TUB). According to phylogenetic inference based on Maximum-likelihood and Bayesian approaches, the newly discovered species are distributed in the Fusarium buharicum, F. fujikuroi, and F. sambucinum species complexes.