Fusarium sporotrichioides as a Pathogen of Spring Wheat. R. H. Vargo, Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul 55108. J. S. Baumer, Assistant Professor, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul 55108. Plant Dis. 70:629-631. Accepted for publication 2 January 1986. Copyright 1986 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-70-629.

Fusarium sporotrichioides was routinely isolated from all plant parts of spring wheat from three Minnesota locations. Leaves and heads of Era spring wheat were inoculated with single-spore cultures of these isolates, and the plants were incubated in a mist chamber for 48–79 hr. Variable necrotic symptoms developed in leaves, leaf sheaths, and culms. The lesions expanded for several weeks. The symptoms on heads resembled scab (caused by F. graminearum), except the kernels were not affected. The fungus was reisolated from and also sporulated on necrotic tissues of inoculated plants in the greenhouse. F. sporotrichioides isolates from soil, oat roots, cornstalks and roots, white clover, and moldy corn grain also were pathogenic to wheat. Comparable inoculations with wheat isolates of F. graminearum produced scabby heads but usually limited leaf necrosis.

Keyword(s): Fusarium graminearum, F. poae, F. tricinctum, Triticum aestivum.