Cryphonectria is a fungal

Fungus

A fungus is a member of a large group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds , as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, Fungi, which is separate from plants, animals, and bacteria...

 genus in the order Diaporthales

Diaporthales

Diaporthales is an order of sac fungi.Diaporthales includes a number of plant pathogenic fungi, the most notorious of which is Cryphonectria parasitica Barr, the chestnut blight fungus that altered the landscape of eastern North America. Other diseases caused by members of this order include stem...

. The most well-known and well-studied species in the genus is Cryphonectria parasitica, the species which causes chestnut blight

Chestnut blight

The pathogenic fungus Cryphonectria parasitica is a member of the ascomycota category, and is the main cause of chestnut blight, a devastating disease of the American chestnut tree that caused a mass extinction in the early 1900s of this once plentiful tree from its historic range in the eastern...

. The genus was, for a time, considered synonymous with Endothia, but the two are now recognised as distinct. Taxonomic studies in 2006 limited the genus to four species, but a fifth, Cryphonectria naterciae, was described in 2011 from Portugal.

Species

• Cryphonectria macrospora (Tak. Kobay. & Kaz. Ito) M.E. Barr
• Cryphonectria naterciae M.H. Bragança, E. Diogo, & A.J.L. Phillips
• Cryphonectria nitschkei (G.H. Otth) M.E. Barr
• Cryphonectria parasitica (Murrill) Barr
• Cryphonectria radicalis (Schwein.: Fr.) M. E. Barr