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Significance

Historical Significance

In the United States, the fungus now known as Colletotrichum cereale was first reported in association with bluegrass in 1914. In 1928, a disease of Poa annua with three causal fungal organisms was described. The organisms described are now known as C. cereale, Drechslera poae, and Fusarium sp. The relative importance of the three fungi in causing the disease was not known. Experiments in England during the 1950s suggested that C. cereale was responsible for the basal rot symptoms of annual bluegrass.

In the late 1960s, anthracnose was described as an important foliar disease of annual bluegrass in South Carolina. However, the existence of the disease was challenged, based on the observation that C. cereale infection was associated with hot environmental conditions and senescing turfgrass leaf blades. Prior to 1975, summer mortality of annual bluegrass was considered a physiological disorder, and plant death was attributed to mid-day heat stress. In 1976, anthracnose was proposed to be one of three components of a syndrome called “Helminthosporium anthracnose senescence” (HAS) decline. The defined syndrome reflected the association of C. cereale with leaf spotting fungi (Bipolaris or Drechslera) and senescing older leaves. By the mid 1980s, C. cereale was confirmed to be pathogenic to annual bluegrass in the United States by fulfilling Koch’s postulates.

Prior to the 1970s, anthracnose was reported sporadically on golf putting greens, but the disease has become more prevalent in recent decades. The increase of anthracnose epidemics on golf courses in the United States coincides with the use of cultural practices that induce greater stress on turfgrass plants, such as reducing mowing height, limiting fertilizer applications, and growing turf in compacted soil.

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