Page 9 - Volume 1, Issue 1, January 2008

New plant pathogens in Greece 7
son). The fact that it was also isolated from
mycoflora of healthy fruits in the field but be-
comed active later in the marketplace indicat-
ed that the fungus was inactive during cool
storage (Bourbos and Skoudridakis, 1992).
The species Gnomonia comari P. Karst.
caused leaf spot on strawberry in the area
of Marathon (Southeastern Greece) (Grig-
oriou, 1992a).
Potato (Solanumtuberosum L.) tuber rot
caused by the fungus Verticillium tricorpus
I. Isaak, as a not seriously damaging case,
was reported in Northern Greece (Thanas-
soulopoulos and Giapanoglou, 1994).
Immature leaves of mango (Mangifera in-
dica L.) trees, imported from Israel and grow-
ing in a greenhouse in Crete, were found to
be infected by the fungus Oidium magnifer-
ae Berthet, while old leaves were not infect-
ed (Bourbos and Skoudridakis, 1995).
Oidium arachidis Chorin, was observed
in irrigated peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.)
crops in Crete, attacking leaves and peti-
oles (Bourbos and Skoudridakis, 1996).
In the Marathon area Botrytis ellipti-
ca (Berk.) Cooke totally destroyed all the
lilium (Lilium michiganense L.) plants in a
greenhouse (Elena et al, 1996) while pars-
ley crops were infected by Cercosporidium
punctum (Lacroix) Deighton which causes
leaf spot (Grigoriou, 1996a).
Chrysanthemum (Denranthema x mo-
rifolium) cv. Reagan in Crete was affected
by the rust Puccinia horiana P. Hennings.
The pathogen attacked young leaves and
symptoms appeared as light-green sunk-
en spots on the upper side of the leaves
and bulbous spore pustules on the re-
verse side (Vakalounakis, 1997).
A serious disease of weeping willow
(Salix babylonica L.) trees was observed,
caused by Marssonina salicicola (Bres.) Mag-
nus in Northern Greece. Leaves became
distorted and fell. Small, light, sunken can-
kers, elongated in shape, appeared on the
young shoots and on the leaf petioles. Se-
verely affected shoots lost their weeping
habit on which the trees ornamental value
is based (Tzavella-Klonari et al., 1997).
Aphanomyces cochlioides Drechs. caused
damping-off and stunting of sugar beet (Beta
vulgaris L.) seedlings in Northern Greece.
It seems that the fungus is widespread and
probably has been present in Greek soils for
several years (Lascaris and Doulias, 2000).
Leaves of the wild strawberry-tree ( Ar-
butus unedo L.) were heavily spotted with
small, necrotic brown spots caused by Hend-
ersonula toruloidea Nattrass . in Northern
Greece. When intense spotting was present,
strong defoliation was observed (Tsahouri-
dou and Thanassoulopoulos, 2000).
The fungus Sphaeropsis sp. [identical
to Diplodia pinea f.sp. cupressi (Desmar.) J.
Kickx fil., described in Israel], was report-
ed to cause cankers on cypress (Cupressus
sempervirens L.] in an experimental plot in
Western Peloponnese. Later the Diplodia
of cypress was characterized as new spe-
cies Diplodia cupressi (Alves et al., 2006; Xe-
nopoulos and Tsopelas, 2000).
Brown canker of rose (Rosa sp.) caused
by the fungus Cryptosporella umbrina (Jen-
kins) Jenkins and Wehm was recorded in
Northern Greece, resulted in the death of
the main canes or the whole plant (Paplo-
matas et al., 2001).
The cotton defoliating pathotype of
Verticillium dahliae Kleb. was first report-
ed in Central Greece during a study of
pathogenicity, vegetative compatibility
and RAPDs analysis. Moreover the defoli-
ating pathotype has not spread in Greece
yet (Elena and Paplomatas, 2001).
Botryosphaeria parva Pennycook and
Samuels caused severe dieback symp-
toms on commercial kiwi plantations cv.
Hayward in the areas of Larissa and Vo-
los (Central Greece) (Rumbos, 2006a). The
same fungus was also found later to infect
the forest species Ilex aquifolium Wither-
ing (English holly) and Ulmus montana L.
(American elm). Ilex aquifolium is of eco-
nomic importance and is cultivated in the