Proposals to conserve Venturia acerina against Cladosporium humile;Ventura borealis against Torula maculicola, Venturia carpophila against Fusicladium amygdali and others

Authors: ROSSMAN, AMY - Oregon State University; Castlebury, Lisa; AGUIRRE-HUDSON, BEGONA - Royal Botanical Gardens; BERNDT, REINHARD - Eth Zurich; EDWARDS, JACQUELINE - La Trobe University

Submitted to: Taxon
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/26/2018
Publication Date: 12/1/2018
Citation: Rossman, A.Y., Castlebury, L.A., Aguirre-Hudson, B., Berndt, R., Edwards, J. 2018. Proposals to conserve the name Venturia acerina against Cladosporium humile; Venturia borealis against Torula maculicola; Venturia carpophila against Fusicladium amygdali and Cladosporiumamericanum; Sphaerella inaequalis (Venturia inaequalis) against Spilocaea pomi, Fumago mali, Actinonema crataegi, Cladosporium dendriticum, Asteroma mali, and Scolicotrichum venosum; and Venturia pyrina against Helminthosporium pyrorum, Fusicladium virescens, F. fuscescens, Cladosporium polymorphum and Passalora pomi (Ascomycota: Dothideomycetes). Taxon. 67(6):1209–1211. https://doi.org/10.12705/676.20.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12705/676.20

Interpretive Summary: Recent changes in the rules by which fungi are named have caused problems in knowing what to call some agriculturally or industrially important fungi. Numerous papers have been published with recommendations on which name should be used for major groups of plant pathogens but some individual species have been overlooked. In this paper all known information is used to decide the correct names for fungal species causing diseases of various plants, including apple, maple, and pear trees. This work is significant because it will allow correct identification of these important fungi. These results will be used by agricultural and industrial scientists as well as plant quarantine officials who need accurate scientific names to communicate about fungi.

Technical Abstract: The genus Venturia includes numerous plant-pathogenic fungi such as V. inaequalis, the cause of apple scab, an ubiquitous disease occurring wherever apples are grown. Venturia inaequalis is the type of the genus Venturia Sacc. 1882, a name that has been conserved against Venturia De Not. 1844. A monograph of Venturia based primarily on the sexual morph was published by Sivanesan, whereas the asexual morph classified as Fusicladium was monographed by Schubert & al. (2003). The type species of Fusicladium Bonord. 1851, F. virescens Bonord. 1851, is now considered a synonym of V. pyrina (Schubert l.c.). In making recommendations for the use of generic names following the change to one scientific name for fungi in the Dothideomycetes, Rossman & al. (2015) recommended the use of Venturia 1882 against Fusicladium 1851 and this was approved. The generic name Fusicladium has been conserved against Spilocaea Fr. 1819 and Cycloconium Castagne 1845. Although already rejected against Fusicladium, the generic names Spilocaea and Cycloconium must be also be rejected against Venturia. These two names and two additional older generic names that are synonyms of Venturia 1882 are included in a recent conservation proposal. However, a number of species names in Venturia have earlier names, especially of the asexual morph. Rather than transfer the older epithets into Venturia, it seems advisable to conserve the names already in Venturia because these names are most commonly used in referring to these fungal pathogens that cause serious plant diseases.