Abstract
Strawberry anthracnose is an important disease in China that results in significant economic losses. A number of Colletotrichum species are known to be pathogens of strawberry. A survey of strawberry fields in eight provinces of China was carried out to identify the causal agents of strawberry anthracnose. The disease mainly causes crown rot, leading to plant wilt and death in the nursery stage, after transplanting in green house, which makes anthracnose a major threat to strawberry production and quality. Multi-locus sequence analysis coupled with morphological assessment revealed that the disease-associated taxa belong to two Colletotrichum species complexes: Colletotrichum nymphaeae (acutatum species complex), C. fructicola and C. changpingense sp. nov. (gloeosporioides species complex). The novel species is introduced in this paper and illustrated. The new species is closely related to C. theobromicola and pathogenicity tests proved that it is pathogenic to the strawberry crown, fruits and leaves.