Two new Sporothrix species from Protea flower heads in South African Grassland and Savanna

The inflorescences and infructescences ofAfrican Protea trees provide habitat for a largediversity of Sporothrix species. Here we describetwo additional members, Sporothrix nsini sp. nov. andSporothrix smangaliso sp. nov., that are associatedwith the infructescences of various Protea speciesfrom grasslands and savannas in the KwaZulu-Natal,North-West, Gauteng and Mpumalanga provinces ofSouth Africa. Their description raises the number ofdescribed Protea-associated Sporothrix species totwelve. S. smangaliso sp. nov. is distantly related toother Protea-associated species and, in phylogeniesusing multiple markers (ITS, beta-tubulin and calmodulin),groups with taxa such as Sporothrix bragantinafrom Brazil and Sporothrix curviconia from the IvoryCoast. S. nsini sp. nov. resolved as sister to a cladecontaining four other Protea-associated species withinthe Sporothrix stenoceras complex. S. nsini sp. nov.was collected from within the same infructescences ofProtea caffra that also contained the closely related S.africana and S. protearum. This highlights the need tostudy and understand the factors that influence hostselection and speciation of Sporothrix in this atypicalniche.Keywords Multigene phylogeny New species Ophiostoma Ophiostomatales Ophiostomatoidfung