Xylaria taiyangheensis W. Y. Zeng & Q. R. Li sp. nov. Fig. 5 Etymology. The specific epithet refers to its collection location, Taiyanghe Provincial Nature Reserve. Type. China. • Yunnan Province, Puer City, Taiyanghe Provincial Nature Reserve, 22 ° 38 ' 24 ″ N, 101 ° 15 ' 13 ″ E, elev. 1032 m, on twigs of Goniothalamus cheliensis Hu, July 2023, Wenyu Zeng & Xin Zhou, TYH 5 (GMB 4704 Holotype; KUN-HKAS 134918 Isotype; GMBC 4704 ex-type). Description. Saprobic on twigs of Goniothalamus cheliensis. Sexual morph: Stromata 0.7–2.7 cm in total length, cylindrical at fertile part, unbranched, long and smooth stipe, 10–24 mm long, fertile part 5–13 mm long × 0.5–1 mm diam., surface black, with 2 / 3 - exposed to fully exposed perithecial mounds, interior white, homogeneous. Perithecia 247–365 μm broad, closely arranged. Ostioles papillate. Asci 79–107 × 6.5–11.3 μm (x ̄ = 93 × 8.9 μm, n = 30), 8 - spored, unitunicate, cylindrical, apically rounded, with a urn-shaped apical apparatus, blue staining in Melzer’s reagent, 4.1–7.1 × 4.6–6.5 μm (x ̄ = 5.6 × 5.5 μm, n = 30). Ascospores 11.6–20.3 × 4.0–7.0 μm (x ̄ = 15.9 × 5.5 μm, n = 30), uniseriate, unicellular, brown, ellipsoid to inequilateral, with broadly rounded ends, smooth, without germ slit, lacking appendages and sheaths, epispore smooth. Asexual morph: Undetermined. Culture characteristics. Colonies on OA reaching 1–1.5 cm diam. after 2 weeks at 25 ° C white at first, with irregular margins, then extension spreading toward the edge of the petri dish; the overall color is light white. Additional material examined. China. • Yunnan Province, Puer City, Taiyanghe Provincial Nature Reserve, 22 ° 38 ' 24 ″ N, 101 ° 15 ' 13 ″ E, elev. 962 m, on twigs of unknown plants, July 2023, Wenyu Zeng & Xin Zhou, TYH 5-1 (GMB 4708; GMBC 4708). Notes. Phylogenetically, it is closely related to X. phyllocharis. However, X. phyllocharis differs in having stromata with a slight perithecial mound, smaller ascomata (100–250 μm in breadth), and smaller ascospores (9–12.5 × 4.5–7 μm) with a straight germ slit (Ju and Hsieh 2023). Morphologically, X. taiyangheensis and X. noduliformis show similar stromata, but the latter has smaller ascospores (9–11 × 5.5–7 µm) with a straight germ slit (Ju and Hsieh 2023). Moreover, X. noduliformis differs from the new collection by its host, and association with petioles.

Published as part of Zeng, Wenyu, Habib, Kamran, Zhou, Xin, Ren, Yulin, Shen, Xiangchun, Wang, Bei, Kang, Yingqian, Kang, Jichuan & Li, Qirui, 2024, Morphology and multigene phylogeny reveal four new Xylaria (Xylariales, Xylariaceae) species from karst region in China, pp. 169-196 in MycoKeys 108 on pages 169-196, DOI: 10.3897/mycokeys.108.130565