Microscopic examinations were carried out based on collections from numerous herbaria, some fresh specimens and hundreds of isolates. The collections examined are deposited at the following herbaria: B, BPI, BRIP, C, CBS, CUP, DAOM, DAR, FH, HAL, HBG, IACM, ILL, IMI, INIFAT, K, KR, LBLM, LE, LEP, LPS, M, MA, NY, NYS, PAD, PC, PDD, PH, PPMH, PRM, S, SIENA, VPRI, W, WIS (abbreviations according to Holmgren et al. 1990 ). Isolates included in this or previous studies were obtained from the culture collection of the Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures (CBS), Utrecht, the Netherlands, or were freshly isolated from a range of different substrates. Single-conidial and ascospore isolates were obtained using the techniques as explained in Crous (1998 ) for species of Mycosphaerella and its anamorphs. Isolates were inoculated onto 2 % potato-dextrose agar (PDA), synthetic nutrient-poor agar (SNA), 2 % malt extract agar (MEA) and oatmeal agar (OA) (Crous et al. 2009d ), and incubated under continuous near-ultraviolet light at 25 °C to promote sporulation. All cultures obtained in this study are maintained in the culture collection of the CBS (Table 1). Nomenclatural novelties and descriptions were deposited in MycoBank (www.MycoBank.org; Crous et al. 2004a ).