Page 4 - Volume 1, Issue 1, January 2008

K. Elena et al. 2
plant pathogens, pests and weeds whose
recognition is becoming possible with the
improving diagnostic techniques and the
revised identification procedures. Both
cases create the need for a closer watch if
the real risk to plant production is to be
assessed. Furthermore, a more regular re-
vision of national checklists of pathogens,
pests and weeds is becoming necessary.
Comprehensive lists of plant pathogens
and pests and weed species occurring in
Greece have been published up to 1990. For
the period 1990-2007 an attempt has been
initiated by scientific staff of the Benaki Phy-
topathological Institute to elaborate on data
published in national and international lit-
erarure and present a summary of the new
records during this period. The attempt is fi-
nally aiming at obtaining a reliable update
of the respective national checklists.
New records of plant pathogens, in-
cluding fungi, bacteria, viruses and vi-
roids, are presented in this article. New
records of plant pests and weed species
for the same period will be presented in
a second article that is to be published in
the next issue of this journal.
1. Plant pathogenic fungi
Plant pathogenic fungi recorded in Greece
during the period 1990–2007 are presented
below in an order related to the importance
of the host they were found on and the dis-
ease they cause. In cases that a number of
species from the same genus are involved,
they are presented under the name of the
genus. The names of all new pathogens are
listed in alphabetical order in Table 1.
Ceratocystis platani 
Ceratocystis platani (J.M. Walter) En-
gelbr. and T.C. Harr. [syn. C. fimbriata (Ellis
and Halsted) Davidson f. sp. platani Walter]
was reported to cause canker stain disease
of plane tree, in natural populations of the
important riparian species oriental plane
tree (Platanus orientalis L.), in a small area
of Southwestern Peloponnese (Southwest-
ern Greece). Cankers were found on both
trunks and branches. The inner bark and
the cambial region of the cankered area
were discoloured bluish-black and the un-
derlying wood stained dark reddish-brown
to bluish-black. In cross section, the stained
wood formed characteristic radial patterns.
C. platani is considered to be indige-
nous to the USA, while in Europe the path-
ogen has caused severe attacks in Italy,
France and Switzerland. Genetic analyses
of Greek isolates, using nuclear and mito-
chondrial DNA fingerprints, showed the
fungus to be identical to the genotype re-
ported from Italy, France and Switzerland.
Earlier studies indicated that the most
common European genotype had been
introduced from eastern North America to
Italy during World War II. The recent intro-
duction into Greece appears to have orig-
inated from Italy, France, or Switzerland,
rather than from Northeastern America.
The pathogen is an EPPO A2 quaran-
tine organism having a dramatic impact
on the natural population of P. orientalis
in Southwestern Greece and containment
measures should be imposed before it
spreads throughout the natural range of
this ecologically and historically important
host (Ocasio-Morales et al., 2007; Tsopelas
and Angelopoulos, 2004).
Phaeomoniella chlamydospora, 
Cylindrocarpon destructans,
Phaeoacremonium sp.
Phaeomoniella chlamydospora (W. Gams,
Crous M.J. Wingfield and L. Mugnai) Crous
and W. Gams and other anamorphic fungi
such as Cylindrocarpon destructans (Zins.)
Scholten and Phaeoacremonium sp. were in-
volved in the young-grapevine (Vitis vinif-
era L.) decline and have been isolated from
the wood of rooted vine cuttings which
show brown to black streaks in longitudi-
nal or vertical sections countrywide. P. chla-
mydospora together with Fomitiporia medi-