Exserohilum persianum sp. nov., a new species from Iran based on morphological and molecular characters

Exserohilum species are plant or human pathogens, saprobes or endophytes mostly associated with grasses including cultivated cereals. At present, 11 phylogenetic species have been accepted in this genus worldwide. In this study, we introduce a novel species, Exserohilum persianum from Festuca sp. (Poaceae, Poales) showing necrotic leaf lesions based on morphological characteristics and sequence data obtained from the internal transcribed spacer (ITS‒rDNA) region, parts of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) and translation elongation factor-1 alpha (TEF1) genes. A detailed morphological description, illustration and comparison with closely allied species are provided.