Link to home

Porroca: An Emerging Disease of Coconut in Central America

May 2008 , Volume 92 , Number  5
Pages  826 - 830

Gregory S. Gilbert, Department of Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz, 95064; and Ingrid M. Parker, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, 95064



Go to article:
Accepted for publication 15 January 2008.
ABSTRACT

Porroca is a lethal disease of coconut (Cocos nucifera) emerging in Central America. Previously known only from Colombia, it has spread rapidly across the Isthmus of Panama in the last decade. Porroca is characterized by the production of stiff, dwarfed leaves, usually followed by the death of the palms within 2 years. We describe the long-distance spread of the disease as determined from regular censuses of more than 200,000 coconut palms in the indigenous Comarca of Kuna Yala and the Republic of Panama. Spread is temporally and spatially variable, with the disease moving across the landscape as much as 40 km per year. Porroca may represent a significant new threat to coconut production in the Caribbean Region.


Additional keywords:emergent plant disease, little leaf, palm, phytoplasma, San Blas

© 2008 The American Phytopathological Society