Morphological and molecular phylogenetic analyses reveal three species of Colletotrichum in Shandong province, China

Colletotrichum has numerous host range and distribution. Its species are important plant pathogens, endophytes and saprobes. Colletotrichum can cause regular or irregular depressions and necrotic lesions in the epidermal tissues of plants. During this research Colletotrichum specimens were collected from Mengyin County, Shandong Province, China. A multi-locus phylogenetic analysis of ITS, GAPDH, CHS-1, ACT, TUB2, CAL and GS sequence data combined with morphology, revealed a new species and two known species, viz. C. mengyinense sp. nov., C. gloeosporioides and C. pandanicola, belonging to the C. gloeosporioides species complex. The new species is described and illustrated in this paper and compared with taxa in the C. gloeosporioides species complex.