A morphologically ill-founded powdery mildew species, Pleochaeta indica, is recognized as a phylogenetic species based on the analysis of the nuclear ribosomal DNA sequences

Morphological characteristics of a powdery mildew fungus found on Celtis australis in the Indian Himalayas coincided with those of Pleochaeta indica, described from this tree species in India, as well with those of P. shiraiana, known to infect C. australis and other plant species in Asia. This suggested that the original description of P. indica based on morphological patterns was not well founded and this taxon could be reduced to synonymy with P. shiraiana. However, phylogenetic analyses of the rDNA 28S and ITS sequences determined in some Indian Pleochaeta specimens from C. australis showed that this fungus is closely related, but not identical to P. shiraiana infecting C. siriensis in Japan which served as the basis of the original description of P. shiraiana. Molecular clock analysis of the ITS region and that of the 28S rDNA indicated that the split between the Japanese P. shiraiana infecting C. sinensis and Pleochaeta sp. infecting C. australis in India may have occurred 2.0-8.5 million years ago in the Pliocene and may have coincided with the formation of the Himalayan mountains and the global cooling of the Earth during the late Tertiary. Thus, P. indica is recognized in this study as a distinct phylogenetic species, although our morphological study showed that its description as a morphological species was not well founded. This is a striking example of a cryptic species which is genetically different from close relatives but cannot be distinguished from them based on morphology. (c) 2006 The British Mycological Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.