Cagaita (Eugenia dysenterica Mart. Ex DC.), family Myrtaceae, is an important wild perennial fruit crop in Central Brazil (1). Anthracnose symptoms were observed on cagaita leaves in a field in Brasília, Federal District (S 15° 36′ 16″ W 47° 42′ 42″), in August 2000. A fungus was consistently isolated from infected leaves and grown on potato dextrose agar (PDA) and its identification was made by P. F. Cannon of CABI Bioscience as Colletotrichum gloeosporioides (Penzig) Penzig & Sacc. (IMI 384184). Pathogenicity tests were performed on 16 cagaita seedlings by placing mycelial PDA plugs on leaves previously wounded with a sterile needle. Control plants were inoculated with plugs without mycelia. After inoculations, the plants were placed in a dew chamber maintained at 25°C for 72 h and later transferred to the greenhouse. Necrotic leaf spots developed on 100% of the inoculated plants 4 days later. Koch's postulates were fulfilled by consistently reisolating C. gloeosporioides from inoculated plants. Control plants remained symptomless. Inoculations were repeated twice with the same results. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first report of anthracnose caused by C. gloeosporioides of cagaita in Brazil.
Reference: (1) S. P. Almeida et al. 1998. Pages 182--186 in: Cerrado: espécies vegetais úteis. Embrapa Cerrados.
