Gazania rigens (L.) (treasure flower, Asteraceae) is grown as a winter and summer annual bedding plant in Louisiana and the lower southern United States. In March 2006, cv. Kiss Mix was observed in a wholesale nursery with symptoms of leaf yellowing, wilt, crown rot, and death. White mycelia and black sclerotia were present on some infected and dead plants. The plants had been grown outdoors and approximately 2% of 1,120 plants had been lost. Petiole and crown tissue from infected plants were surface disinfected in 70% ethyl alcohol, and sections were placed on acidified potato dextrose agar (PDA). A fungus that produced white mycelia and black sclerotia consistently grew from tissue pieces. Other characteristics included production of numerous sclerotia (32 to 71 per dish from 10 dishes) that were oval to oblong and formed in a ring at the periphery of culture dishes. Sclerotia measured 3 to 7 mm long (mean = 4.4, standard error = 0.15, N = 50) × 2 to 4 mm wide (mean = 3.0, standard error = 0.06, N = 50). Cells of sclerotial rinds were globose and lacked erect tomentum hyphae (1). Growth rate of the fungus at 26°C on PDA ranged from 1.3 to 3.1 cm/day (mean = 2.2, standard error = 0.05, N = 45) and mycelia covered the dishes after 3 days (2). On the basis of these characteristics, the fungus was identified as Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (Lib.) de Bary. Fungal inoculum for pathogenicity tests was grown on twice-sterilized wheat grains and 1 g of 10-day-old inoculum, consisting of fungus mycelia and sclerotia, was placed at the base of six G. rigens cv. Daybreak Mix plants. Inoculated and noninoculated control plants were placed in a dew chamber held at 22°C for 48 h and then moved to a greenhouse where temperatures ranged from 20 to 25°C. Leaf yellowing, wilt, and crown rot developed after 3 to 4 days on all inoculated plants followed by death after 6 days. S. sclerotiorum was reisolated from all inoculated plants. Noninoculated plants remained healthy. Sclerotinia crown rot of G. rigens was first reported in the United States from California (3) and has also been reported from Italy and Argentina (4). To our knowledge, this is the first report of Sclerotinia crown rot on G. rigens in Louisiana.
References: (1) L. M. Kohn. Phytopathology 69:881, 1979. (2) G. Li et al. Mycol. Res. 104:232, 2000. (3) V. M. Muir and A. H. McCain. Calif. Plant Pathol. 16:1, 1973. (4) S. M. Wolcan. J. Plant Path. 86:263, 2004.
