Disease Note

Peanut Stunt Virus in White Clover in Iowa. M. R. McLaughlin, USDA-ARS, Crop Science Research Laboratory, Forage Research Unit, Mississippi State, MS 39762-5367. Plant Dis. 70:1159. Accepted for publication 8 September 1986. Copyright 1986 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-70-1159f.

An atypical plant of white clover (Trifolium repens L.) collected in Lincoln Township, Audubon County, Iowa, in August 1983 was transplanted, maintained in isolation, and periodically cloned from stolon cuttings. The plant was genetically unusual (producing red-pigmented flowers rather than white) and also had mosaic and stunting symptoms typical of virus infection. Initial and subsequent ELISA of fresh leaf tissue from the original plant and from ramets consistently confirmed infections by peanut stunt virus (PSV) and white clover mosaic virus; PSV was subsequently isolated by passage through Chenopodium quinoa Willd. This is the first report of PSV in Iowa and extends the eastern range of the virus westward from Illinois (2) and northward from Arkansas (1).