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Water dropwort (Oenanthe javanica DC.) is an economically important plant consumed as a vegetable and medicine in China. During 2012–2014, symptoms similar to grey mould were observed on leaves and stems of water dropwort in Beijing, China. A fungus was isolated from diseased plants from three greenhouses and identified based on morphological characteristics and multiple sequences analysis. Six isolates showed similar morphology to Botrytis cinerea and the ITS–5.8S rDNA, HSP60, RPB2 and G3PDH sequences of these isolates displayed 100% identity to reported B. cinerea strains. The phylogenetic analysis showed that the representative isolate was clustered within a clade comprising reference isolates of B. cinerea. Ten days after inoculation, severe wilt and blight symptoms were observed on leaves and stems of water dropwort, which were similar to those in the field. The pathogenicity test demonstrated the fungus was pathogenic to water dropwort. The identification of the causal agent using morphologi...

A severe rot was observed on common Andrographis herb (Andrographis paniculata), also named ‘Chuan Xinlian’, which is a widely used medicinal plant. The disease affected 45–65% of plants growing in different greenhouses in Changping county, Beijing city, China. Disease symptoms began as dark brown and water-soaked lesions, with the eventual development of abundant white mycelia and sclerotia on stems and leaves. The pathogen was isolated from diseased tissues, and was identified as Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (Lib.) de Bary based on cultural features, morphological characteristics and molecular analysis. The pathogenicity of the isolated fungus was confirmed from inoculation experiments. This is the first report of S. sclerotiorum on common Andrographis herb.