Angular chlorotic spots were observed on adaxial leaf surfaces of Salvia splendens (scarlet sage cvs. Empire Purple, Empire White, Red Pillar, and Red Hot Sally) and S. coccinea (scarlet or Texas sage cv. Lady in Red) in early May in Baton Rouge area nurseries. Leaf spots sometimes became necrotic and resulted in leaf drop. Abaxial leaf surfaces contained scattered patches of white mycelia with brown spores. Microscopic examination of mycelia revealed irregular dichotomously branched conidiophores with pointed tips and brown oval conidia. Conidiophores averaged 485 × 9 µm and conidia averaged 21 × 18 µm (16 to 26 × 15 to 23 µm) in dimensions. The fungus was identified as Peronospora lamii A. Braun (= P. swinglei Ellis & Everh.) based on these characters and its known occurrence on Salvia spp. and five other genera in the family Lamiaceae (2). Pathogenicity tests were performed by washing conidia from infected leaves into distilled water and mistinoculating S. coccinea cv. Lady in Red and S. splendens cv. Empire Purple with 50,000 spores/ml. Plants were held in a dew chamber at 20°C for 3 days, then moved to a greenhouse where temperatures ranged from 18 to 32°C. Typical angular chlorotic leaf spots developed on inoculated plants within 6 to 8 days and noninoculated plants remained healthy. The fungus did not sporulate under these greenhouse temperatures, but infected leaves that were removed and placed in a moist chamber at 25°C produced conidiophores and brown conidia typical of P. lamii within 2 to 3 days. P. lamii has been reported previously on S. officinalis (3) and S. reflexa (1) in the United States. This is the first report of downy mildew on S. coccinea and S. splendens. Appearance of the disease in retail nurseries that obtained plants from out of state (Arkansas) suggests a widespread occurrence of the disease on these host plants.
References: (1) D. F. Farr et al. 1989. Fungi on Plants and Plant Products in the United States. American Phytopathological Society, St. Paul, MN. (2) S. M. Francis. 1981. Peronospora lamii. Descriptions of Pathogenic Fungi and Bacteria No. 688. Commonwealth Mycological Institute, Kew, England. (3) R. T. McMillan and W. R. Graves. Plant Dis. 78:317, 1994.
