Fungi occurring onOrobanchespp. and their preliminary evaluation forOrobanchecontrol

Isolation of fungi from samples of Orobanche crenata Forsk. and Orobanche minor Sm. plants collected from Syria, Morocco, and France yielded 16 different species belonging to nine genera. The most common genera were Alternaria, Fusarlum and Ulocladium. Eleven species out of the 16 had not been known previously to have occurred on Orobanche. In the preliminary laboratory and field tests Ulocladium atrum Preuss. could infect and destroy underground tubercles and emerged shoots of O. crenata provided temperature was around 20°C and the relative humidity between 50% and 80%. Its use as a potential biological control of Orobanche appears promising and should, therefore, be further studied.