''Pseudocercospora'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

ascomycete Ascomycota is a phylum of the kingdom Fungi that, together with the Basidiomycota, forms the subkingdom Dikarya. Its members are commonly known as the sac fungi or ascomycetes. It is the largest phylum of Fungi, with over 64,000 species. The defi ...

fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...

. An

anamorph In mycology, the terms teleomorph, anamorph, and holomorph apply to portions of the life cycles of fungi in the phyla Ascomycota and Basidiomycota: *Teleomorph: the sexual reproductive stage (morph), typically a fruiting body. *Anamorph: an ase ...

ic version of the genus ''

Mycosphaerella ''Mycosphaerella'' is a genus of ascomycota. With more than 10,000 species, it is the largest genus of plant pathogen fungi. The following introduction about the fungal genus ''Mycosphaerella'' is copied (with permission) from the dissertation ...

'', ''Pseudocercospora'' species are

plant pathogens Plant pathology (also phytopathology) is the scientific study of diseases in plants caused by pathogens (infectious organisms) and environmental conditions (physiological factors). Organisms that cause infectious disease include fungi, oomyc ...

, including the causal agent of the so-called South American leaf blight of the

rubber tree ''Hevea brasiliensis'', the Pará rubber tree, ''sharinga'' tree, seringueira, or most commonly, rubber tree or rubber plant, is a flowering plant belonging to the spurge family Euphorbiaceae originally native to the Amazon basin, but is now pa ...

. The widely distributed genus has been estimated to contain over 1100 species, concentrated predominantly in

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

regions. ''Pseudocercospora'' was circumscribed by Italian-Argentinian botanist

Carlos Luigi Spegazzini Carlo Luigi Spegazzini, in Spanish Carlos Luis Spegazzini (20 April 1858 – 1 July 1926), was an Italian-born Argentinian botanist and mycologist. On the 1881/1882 expedition led by Giacomo Bove to explore Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, the ...

in 1910.

References

External links

* Fungal plant pathogens and diseases Mycosphaerellaceae genera Taxa named by Carlo Luigi Spegazzini Taxa described in 1910 {{Capnodiales-stub