Identification and First Report of Causing Sheath Rot of in China.

is a perennial plant native to East Asia. The swollen culm of is a popular vegetable and traditional herbal medicine consumed in China and some other Asian countries. From 2019 to 2021, a sheath rot disease was found in Zhejiang Province of China. Symptoms mainly occurred in the leaf sheath showing as brown necrotic lesions surrounded by yellow halos. The pathogen fungal isolates were isolated from the affected sheaths. Ten representative isolates were selected for morphological and molecular identification by phylogenetic analyses of the translation elongation factor 1-α () and the RNA polymerase II subunit beta () gene regions. Based on the combined datasets, the fungal isolates were identified as . Koch's postulates were confirmed by pathogenicity test, re-isolation and re-identification of the fungal isolates. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of sheath rot caused by in in China.