First Report of Colletotrichum acutatum on Strawberry in the United States. B. J. Smith, USDA-ARS, Poplarville, MS 39470. L. L. Black, Department of Plant Pathology and Crop Physiology, Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, Baton Rouge 70803. Plant Dis. 70:1074. Accepted for publication 11 July 1986. Copyright 1986 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-70-1074e.

Colletotrichum acutatum Simmonds was isolated during the spring of 1983 from strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch. ‘Cardinal’) growing in Mississippi fields established with nursery plants from Arkansas. Fruit and petiole lesions were common, and crown lesions occurred on scattered wilted plants. C. acutatum was isolated consistently from each of these lesion types. Additional isolates, identified in our laboratory as C. acutatum, came from Florida (C. Howard) and Missouri (W. Goff) strawberry fields established with Arkansas-grown plants and from California (S. Wilhelm) fields established with California-grown plants. Spray inoculations of cv. Tioga plants with conidial suspensions (1.5 × 10⁶ conidia/ ml) of the Mississippi C. acutatum isolates resulted in fruit, petiole, and crown lesions with wilting of crown-infected plants. Reisolations from each lesion type yielded isolates with characteristics of the one used to inoculate the host. C. acutatum had been reported on strawberry in Australia and New Zealand (1) but has not been reported on strawberry in the United States or been previously shown to cause a crown rot and wilt disease.