Nonsurvival of Sugarcane Rust at Meridian, Mississippi. Natale Zummo, Research Plant Pathologist, USDA, ARS, U.S. Sugar Crops Field Station, Meridian, MS 39301. D. M. Broadhead, Research Agronomist, USDA, ARS, U.S. Sugar Crops Field Station, Meridian, MS 39301. Plant Dis. 67:168-169. Accepted for publication 16 June 1982. This article is in the public domain and not copyrightable. It may be freely reprinted with customary crediting of the source. The American Phytopathological Society, 1983. DOI: 10.1094/PD-67-168.

Sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) rust, first found at Meridian, MS, after Hurricane Frederick in 1979, was not observed in 1980 and 1981. Systematic inspections of plots of a known susceptible sugarcane clone planted as a test host, several thousand sugarcane lines, and clones of Saccharum spontaneum, Arundo donax, and Arundinaria gigantia were negative. Inoculations of sugarcane plants representing a wide range of germ plasms, with spores of a rust on bamboo (Bambusa vulgaris and Phylostachys bambusoides) that was morphologically similar to the spores of the rust on sugarcane also were uniformly negative. These completely negative results strongly indicate that sugarcane rust may not survive in the Meridian area because of the long period (November to April) during which there is no actively growing leaf tissue above the ground.