Proliférations épiphylles provoquées par l'acarien Eriophyes cladophthirus chez le Solanum lycopersicum et le Nicandra physaloides (Solanaceae)

The acarian Eriophyes cladophthirus Nal. causes necrosis of the vegetative shoots of tomato and Nicandra and an inhibition and a modification of their apical growth, which are often accompanied by fasciation phenomena, the development of supernumerary buds and the proliferation of various shapes on the leaves. The foliar proliferations are warts, simple outgrowths, radially or dorsiventrally symmetrical appendices looking like small leaves and neoformed buds. In both species, intermediate forms of the various categories are found. The radially or dorsiventrally symmetrical appendices are simple or branched, vascularized or not, irregularly grouped or laid out in a more or less obvious phyllotaxy. They may appear directly on the leaf or may be the result of the activity of a neoformed apex. In this great diversity of shapes, many morphological continua, based on a number of criteria (symmetry, vascularization, etc.), have been identified. Some of them are common to both species, others only pertain to one or the other. [Journal translation]