Author/Authors :
Safari Motlagh Mohammad Reza نويسنده Department of Plant Pathology, Faculty of Agriculture, Rasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Rasht, Guilan Province, PO box 41335-3516, Iran , Ramezani Rad Fatemeh نويسنده Master of Horticulture, Rasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Rasht, Iran
Abstract :
Conifers, a component of beauties of parks and landscapes, are
infected with diverse pathogens, especially fungi. In this research, samples
were collected from conifers displaying symptoms of disease in parks and
landscapes of Rasht in Iran and for the isolation and identification of
pathogenic fungi, pieces of infected tissues were placed in PDA and at the
next stages in WA, PCA and SNA media and in total, 58 isolates were
isolated and identified based on morphological characters. These fungi
belonged to Alternaria franseriae, Alternaria tenuissima, Curvularia pallescens,
Fusarium sambucinum and Pestalotia sp. Afterward, pathogenicity test of
these fungi was done on Chamaecyparis lawsoniana, Chamaecyparis
lawsoniana ʹMinima Aureaʹ, Thuja sp., Juniperus horizontalis, Juniperus
chinensis and Cupressus arizonica and to do so, a spore suspension was
prepared with the concentration of 5 × 104 spores per ml distilled water and
then, the studied plants were inoculated. Final assessments were carried out 10
dayslaterto determine disease intensity.Resultsshowed that A. franseriae onC.
lawsoniana, A. tenuissima on C. lawsoniana ʹMinima Aureaʹ, C. pallescens on
C. lawsoniana and J. chinensis, F.sambucinum on J. horizontalis and Pestalotia
sp. on C. arizonica and C. lawsoniana ʹMinima Aureaʹ, were pathogenic. The
most disease severity was caused by A. franseriae on C. lawsoniana and the
least disease severity by Pestalotia sp. on C. lawsoniana ʹMinima Aureaʹ.
Among the studied plants, C. lawsoniana and C. lawsoniana ʹMinima Aureaʹ
showed the greatestsensitivity and the most resistance, respectively.Analysis
of variance revealed significant differences in disease intensity of the studied
fungi. The occurrence of A. franseriae, A. tenuissima and C. pallescens on
conifers has been reported for the first time from Iran on conifers.