Submitted to: Plant Disease
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: October 11, 2007
Publication Date: January 5, 2008
Citation: Bobev, S.G., Castlebury,
Submitted to: Plant Disease
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: October 11, 2007
Publication Date: January 5, 2008
Citation: Bobev, S.G., Castlebury, L.A., Rossman, A.Y. 2008. First report of Colletotrichum dracaenophilum on Dracaena sanderiana in Bulgaria. Plant Disease. 92:173. Interpretive Summary: Fungi are a very large and diverse group of organisms that cause serious damage to crop and forest plants. Accurate knowledge of the distribution of fungi is important for tracking the movement of these disease-causing fungi. In this research a fungus that infects members of the agave family especially horticulturally important plants was discovered for the first time outside of its center of origin. This pathogen was only recently described but appears to have been moved around the world with its cultivated host and thus poses a threat to the United States. Knowledge of the distribution of plant pathogenic fungi is useful to horticulturalists in importing nursery stock of specialty crops as well as plant regulatory and quarantine officials.
Technical Abstract: In the winter of 2007, severe damage was observed on indoor potted plants of Dracaena sanderiana hort. Sander ex Mast. (“lucky bamboo”) in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, imported from a country of unknown origin. Initially, the internodes of infected stems appeared pale green with yellowish lesions. An upward-spreading necrosis led to a weakness of the stems with wilt and death of the plants occurring within two weeks. Eventually the entire stem was covered with numerous, black, globose to ellipsoid acervuli with sparse, black setae. The causal pathogen was asept