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Coffee ( Coffea arabica )is widely planted and an economicallyimportant cropin Brazil both for domestic consumption and export. During 2006 a new disease affected coffee seedlings cv. Catuai in a commercial nursery located in Arandu county,…

In 2009, beds of Buxus sempervirens and newly planted B. sempervirens ‘Suffruticosa’ in a park in Opatija, Croatia, showed extensive leaf and twig blight. Leaves with dark roundish spots turned red-brown and grey and dropped. Shoots and stems had dieback with narrow blackish streaks on the bark surface. Two widely occurring fungal pathogens of Common box, Volutella buxi and Puccinia buxi, were sporulating abundantly on the diseased plants. However, the presence of dark spots on the leaves and blackish streaks on the bark revealed Cylindrocladium buxicola. This was the first report of new pathogen on Common box from Croatia.

The urapan tree was introduced into Colombia around 50 years ago and has been planted along the streets of cities and rural areas throughout the Andean zone. Previously referred to as Fraxinus chinensis, recent taxonomic studies indicate that its correct name is F. udhei; a native species of Mexico (E. Wollander, personal communication). Symptoms of urapan dieback include yellowing of leaves, little leaves and unusual patterns of regrowth of crowns and, less commonly, on trunks of mature trees, which often give the foliage a tufted appearance. These symptoms are similar to those of ash yellows, a phytoplasma disease found in North America and especially the north-eastern USA (Sinclair & Griffiths, 1996). Urapan trees with similar dieback symptoms have been observed in Bogota, Medellin, Pereira, Manizales in Colombia and in Quito, Ecuador. Using both DAPI staining and PCR, phytoplasma infection was detected in urapan trees affected with dieback, with samples from these trees consistently yielding amplified phytoplasma DNA by PCR using the universal 16S rDNA primers P1/Tint and R16/R2 (Smart et al., 1996; Lee et al., 1993). A phytoplasma-specific product of 1200 base pairs (obtained using primer pair R16/ R2) was sequenced and shown to share 94% homology with ash yellows (AshY3) gene 16sRNA (GenBank accession number AF105315). There is very little information on diseases of F. udhei but there is no indication of any other causes of the symptoms characteristic of ash yellows. In a May 2000 survey of 50 trees from seven localities in Bogota, 48% had moderate symptoms, and 52% were severely affected by the disease. This is the first confirmed record of ash yellows occurring outside North America and has considerable significance for Fraxinus species which are widely planted in urban and rural settings throughout the Andean range as well as natural stands of F. udhei in Mexico.

A new disease of Commelina agraria associated with Pyricularia grisea is described. The fungus is compared with Pyricularia ebbelsii from Commelina africana.

Symptoms of post-harvest stem-end rot of passion fruit caused by Phomopsis tersa are described for the first time. Under laboratory conditions, following artificial inoculation, first symptoms occurred 4–11 days after harvest, depending on the length of the peduncles of fruits when harvested and whether fruits were injured. It is concluded that the pathogen invades the fruit through the peduncle and damaged skin.

A new disease of peppers (Capsicum annuum) is described. The most characteristic symptom is vein yellowing of the youngest leaves. Some streaking occurs on the first-formed fruits. The symptoms were reproduced in pepper plants cv. Bellboy by graft and Olpidium transmission. Most pepper cultivars tested were susceptible but some appeared to he resistant. The disease had no effect on fruit weight.

A serious disease of cardamom in East New Britain Province of Papua New Guinea was shown by pathogenicity and biochemical tests to be caused by Erwinia chrysanthemi. The bacterium was repeatedly isolated from blackened roots, soft discoloured rhizome tissue and rhizosphere soil, but not from field soil in the immediate neighbourhood of diseased plants.

A serious leaf spot and stem canker observed on Hibiscus sabdariffa var. sabdariffa is reported for the first time from Trinidad and Tobago. Symptoms are described and the pathogen is identified as Coniella musaiaensis Sutton var. hibisci.

SUMMARY Symptoms are described of a new disease of mushrooms caused by Mortierella bainieri. Peeling of the stipe to give a shaggy appearance is one of the most characteristic symptoms. Similar symptoms were reproduced in an infection experiment. M. bainieri is less sensitive to benomyl than some of the other more common fungal pathogens of this crop.