South Florida microfungi: a new species of Taeniolella (anamorphic Sordariomycetes) isolated from cabbage palm

Taeniolella sabalicola sp. nov., isolated from a petiole of a dead leaf of Sabal palmetto collected in south Florida, U.S.A., is described and illustrated based on morphological, cultural and molecular data. The fungus is characterized by forming slowly growing, black, restricted colonies on culture media and effuse colonies with abundant aerial mycelium on natural substrate after incubation, semi-macronematous or micronematous, long, unbranched conidiophores and clavate, ellipsoidal or cylindrical, smooth or verruculose, brown to blackish brown, multiseptate conidia with transverse, longitudinal and oblique septa, often surrounded by a mucilaginous sheath and usually in simple or branched acropetal chains. Phylogenetic analyses based on partial nuclear ribosomal large subunit (LSU) and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequence data also suggest the fungus is distinct from other Taeniolella species and possess affinities with members of Sordariomycetidae (Ascomycota) but its ordinal or familial position within the subclass remains uncertain. Molecular data also confirm that Taeniolella sensu lato is polyphyletic and show that T sabalicola is unrelated to the generic type, T. exilis, recently placed in the family Kirschsteiniotheliaceae within the class Dothideomycetes.