Three new species of soil-inhabiting from southwest China.

Fungi in the genus are widely distributed in China, including in Yunnan province. In this study, we report three new soil-inhabiting species in , named as , and . Their colony and mycelial morphology, including features of asexual states, were described. For each species, their DNA sequences were obtained from three loci, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions of the ribosomal DNA, the translation elongation factor 1-α encoding gene (tef1) and the gene encoding the second largest nuclear RNA polymerase subunit (rpb2). Our analyses indicated that the three new species showed consistent divergence amongst each other and from other known and closely related species. Amongst the three, and belong to the Viride Clade. Specifically, is related to three species - , and and is characterised by tree-like conidiophores, generally paired branches, curved terminal branches, spindly to fusiform phialides and subglobose to globose conidia. In contrast, morphologically resembles and and is distinguished by its pyramidal conidiophores, ampulliform to tapered phialides, discrete branches and ovoidal, occasionally ellipsoid, smooth-walled conidia. The third new species, , is a new member of the Harzianum Clade and is closely associated with , and but distinguished from them by having smaller, subglobose to globose, thin-walled conidia.