Nothophoma spp. causing leaf blight of ancient Platycladus orientalis

Ancient Platycladus orientalis holds significant ecological, landscape, historical, and cultural value. In northern China, leaf blight has significantly impacted the growth and ornamental value of ancient P. orientalis. In this study, 26 blight leaf samples of ancient P. orientalis were collected in Beijing, China. Phylogenetic analysis based on the concatenated internal transcribed spacer (ITS), β-tubulin (tub2), and RNA polymerase second largest subunit (rpb2) DNA sequence data combined with fungal morphological characteristics revealed three taxa of Nothophoma, i.e. N. platycladus, N. spiraeae, and N. juglandis. Of which, N. platycladus is a species new to science. Koch’s postulates indicated that all these three species of Nothophoma could cause leaf blight of P. orientalis.