"As shown in the present study, Phaeophleospora atkinsonii, a pathogen of Hebe spp. (Wu et al. 1996, Pennycook & McKenzie 2002), clusters distant from Phaeophleospora s. str., .... [This species] thus clearly represent[s] yet another [genus] in the Phaeophleospora complex.... P. atkinsonii [has] a typical Kirramyces morphology, namely brown, percurrently proliferating conidiogenous cells, and brown, obclavate, verruculose, transversely euseptate conidia. Further species thus need to be included in analyses before these generic concepts can be clarified."

Type: Foliicolous Fungi; Description: Conidiomata pycnidial, scattered, immersed, globose to subglobose, brown, 0.1 mm in diameter; on roughly circular, 3–12 mm in diameter, brown leaf spots without a definite margin. Conidia cylindrical to obclavate, straight or slightly curved, 3-septate, 29–42 × 2–3 m, minutely verruculose, pale yellowish brown.

Distribution: Auckland, Wanganui, Wellington.; 1st Record: Sydow (1924: as Scoleciasis atkinsonii).

Notes: This fungus, found on lesions on leaves of Hebe spp., has been repeatedly confused with Septoria exotica (see p. 80), also found on lesions on leaves of Hebe spp. See Laundon (1978b) for an account of the confusion between the two species and a description of their distinguishing characteristics.

Significance: A common leaf spot having no significance.; Host(s): Hebe elliptica, H. stricta var. stricta, H. stricta var. atkinsonii.