A distinguishing feature of the majority of the tremellomycetous yeasts is their ability to utilize a cyclitol, myoinositol, as sole source of carbon and energy. This characteristic, which, as a rule, is not shared by ascomycetous yeasts and by basidiomycetous yeasts of other classes, represents a fundamental key in yeast identification. Specifically, inositol assimilation is a criterion used to distinguish between anamorphic yeasts of the genera Cryptococcus Vuillemin and Rhodotorula Harrison (Kurtzman & Fell, 1998;Barnett et al., 2000). With a few exceptions, species of the genus Cryptococcus (subphylum Agaricomycotina) utilize both myo-inositol and D-glucuronate, the first intermediate of inositol catabolism, whereas species belonging to the genus Rhodotorula typically do not assimilate myo-inositol, and D-glucuronate assimilation is variable within this genus. Eukaryotes metabolize myoinositol via the D-glucuronate-L-gulonate pathway (Golubev, 1989), i.e. the sole step only, the oxidation of myo-inositol to D-glucuronate, is absent in D-glucuronatepositive but myo-inositol-negative Rhodotorula species. During a survey of yeasts from pine and spruce dead needle litters we found several isolates that were positive for both myo-inositol and D-glucuronate assimilation. A rDNA gene sequence analysis and a comparison of their phenotypic properties revealed that the isolates constitute novel anamorphic species in the Microbotryomycetes, for which the names Rhodotorula rosulata sp. nov., Rhodotorula silvestris sp. nov. and Rhodotorula straminea sp. nov. are proposed.The strains (isolation numbers: Pa-78, Pa-84, Pa-85, Ps-88, Ps-93, Ps-103, Ps-128 and Ps-130) were isolated from dead Abbreviation: ITS, internal transcribed spacer.The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession numbers for the LSU rDNA gene D1/D2 domain sequences determined in this study are EU872490, GQ121044 and EU872489. Accession numbers for the ITS region sequences are EU872492, GQ121045 and EU872491.Phylogenetic trees based on sequence analysis of the D1/D2 domains of the LSU rDNA gene and the ITS regions are available with the online version of this paper.