ABSTRACT
Macrophomina phaseolina Tassi (Goid.) is the type species of the genus Macrophomina Petr., and this name has also been applied, erroneously, to the coelomycete (pycnidial) synanamorph of Rhizoctonia bataticola (Taubenh.) E.J. Butler.1 Macrophomina phaseolina is a seed and soilborne plant pathogenic fungus that causes seedling blight, root and stem rot of more than 500 cultivated and wild plant species including economically important crops, forest trees, fruit, and weed species.2,3
Due to the lack of knowledge about its sexual stage (teleomorph), this fungus was placed in the anamorphic Ascomycetes with no apparent af–liation to the known families of Ascomycetes. According to recent phylogenetic data,1 M. phaseolina is currently recognized as a member of the family Botryosphaeriaceae even though its teleomorph is still unknown. The name of the synanamorph, and its taxonomic placement, has been the topic of much controversy (for details see Crous et al.1).
