new records of citrus sooty mold fungi from north of iran

sooty molds are a group of fungi with dark-coloured hyphae, which grow saprophytically on various living plant organs and sometimes on non-living substrates and produce brown to black superficial colonies, black pellicles or pseudoparenchymatous crust. in north of iran including guilan and mazandaran provinces, sooty molds are common on living leaves of a great variety of plants especially citrus spp. there are a few sporadic reports of sooty mold fungi from iran in the literature. in continuation of an earlier investigation, sooty molds from different citrus species collected from western parts of mazandaran province and specimens obtained from fungal collection at university of guilan were studied. as a result, five mitosporic species viz., chaetasbolisia falcata, cylindroxyphium virginianum, fumiglobus citrinus, fumiglobus foedus and polychaeton tenellum, and one ascomyceteous species phaeosaccardinula epicarpa, were identified as causal agents of sooty mold on citrus plants in this region. according to the literature, all of the above mentioned taxa are new to iran mycobiota.