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Martin Kemler, Teodor T. Denchev, Cvetomir M. Denchev, Dominik Begerow, Marcin Piątek, Matthias Lutz

• The smut fungal genus \(\it Microbotryum\) (Microbotryales, Pucciniomycotina) contains species that parasitize plants from many different lineages of euasterids, with host specificity of individual parasite species in general being exceptionally high. Additionally, it has been shown that the location of spore production in some species is related to spore dispersal. In this phylogenetic study based on ITS and LSU rDNA data of 57 \(\it Microbotryum\) spp., host spectra and sorus location are mapped on the phylogeny of \(\it Microbotryum\) species in order to understand the macroevolutionary patterns of these two traits. We find that monophyletic parasite clades correspond well with monophyletic host clades and also that monophyletic parasite groups in general produce their spores in the same plant organ. Ancestral state reconstruction inferred the most probable ancestral trait for sorus location being leaves and the most probable ancestral host family for the genus \(\it Microbotryum\) as being the Polygonaceae. According to molecular analyses, a newly sequenced specimen of \(\textit {Ustilago ducellieri}\), a seed parasite on \(\textit {Arenaria leptoclados}\), previously treated as synonym of \(\textit {Microbotryum duriaeanum}\), belongs to a lineage distinct from specimens of \(\textit {M. duriaeanum}\). A new combination, \(\textit {Microbotryum ducellieri}\), is accordingly proposed. Taxonomic implications of the presented analyses for the genera \(\it Bauhinus\) and \(\it Haradaea\) are briefly discussed.