| Summary: | <i>Camellia sinensis</i> is one of the major crops grown in Taiwan and has been widely cultivated around the island. Tea leaves are prone to various fungal infections, and leaf spot is considered one of the major diseases in Taiwan tea fields. As part of a survey on fungal species causing leaf spots on tea leaves in Taiwan, 19 fungal strains morphologically similar to the genus <i>Diaporthe</i> were collected. ITS (internal transcribed spacer), <i>tef1-α</i> (translation elongation factor 1-α), <i>tub2</i> (beta-tubulin), and <i>cal</i> (calmodulin) gene regions were used to construct phylogenetic trees and determine the evolutionary relationships among the collected strains. In total, six <i>Diaporthe</i> species, including one new species, <i>Diaporthe hsinchuensis</i>, were identified as linked with leaf spot of <i>C. sinensis</i> in Taiwan based on both phenotypic characters and phylogeny. These species were further characterized in terms of their pathogenicity, temperature, and pH requirements under laboratory conditions. <i>Diaporthe tulliensis</i>, <i>D. passiflorae</i>, and <i>D. perseae</i> were isolated from <i>C. sinensis</i> for the first time. Furthermore, pathogenicity tests revealed that, with wound inoculation, only <i>D. hongkongensis</i> was pathogenic on tea leaves. This investigation delivers the first assessment of <i>Diaporthe</i> taxa related to leaf spots on tea in Taiwan.
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