2.1. Specimen Collection, Examination, and Fungal Isolation

Diseased branches and leaves of woody oil plants (Camellia oleifera, Olea europaea, Paeonia suffruticosa, Sapium sebiferum, and Vernicia fordii, Figure 1) were collected from Sichuan Province, China (detailed information of the collection sites are mentioned in Section 3.2). Specimens were taken to the laboratory and observed using a Motic SMZ 168 stereo microscope. Micro-morphological characteristics were observed and photographed with a Nikon ECLIPSE Ni compound microscope fitted with a Canon EOS 600D digital camera. Measurements were taken by Tarosoft Image Frame Work program v. 0.9.7 and the images for figures were processed with Adobe Photoshop CS6 Extended v. 13.0 software. Fungal isolates were obtained by the single spore isolation method. Germinated conidia were transferred aseptically to potato dextrose agar (PDA) plates and grown at 25 °C in daylight. Colony color [25] and other characters were observed and measured after two weeks.

Hosts of pestalotiod species collected in this study (a) Camellia oleifera, (b) Olea europaea, (c) Paeonia suffruticosa, (d) Sapium sebiferum, (e) Vernicia fordii.

The isolates obtained in this study were deposited at the China General Microbiological Culture Collection Center (CGMCC), in Beijing, China and the University of Electronic Science and Technology Culture Collection (UESTCC), in Chengdu, China. Specimens were deposited at the Herbarium of Cryptogams, Kunming Institute of Botany Academia Sinica (KUN-HKAS), in Kunming, China and at the Herbarium of the University of Electronic Science and Technology (HUEST), in Chengdu, China. New taxa were established based on recommendations outlined by Jeewon and Hyde [26]. The scientific names of the new taxa were registered in MycoBank (www.mycobank.com accessed on 25 August 2022)) and Facesoffungi [27].