Disease Note

First Report of Anthracnose Caused by Glomerella cingulata on White Beans in Ontario, Canada. J. C. Tu, Agriculture Canada, Research Station, Harrow, Ontario N0R 1G0. . Plant Dis. 74:394. Accepted for publication 18 February 1990. DOI: 10.1094/PD-74-0394F.

An outbreak of anthracnose with characteristics of shoot necrosis was observed in white bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) in several field plots in Wallaceburg and Harrow, Ontario, in September 1987. Pods above symptomatic stems dried prematurely and shrank, and seed size and number were greatly reduced. Foliar and pod infections were also common. Infected leaves developed brown to chocolate-brown lesions on veins and interveinal tissues. Numerous pinpoint black dots (acervuli of Colletotrichum gloeosporioides (Penz.) Sacc.) developed initially in lesions on infected stems and pods. Later, perithecia were also found in diseased stems. Both anamorph and teleomorph of the fungus were also observed in bean straw from previous plantings of white bean at several locations in southwestern Ontario. The teleomorph was identifed as Glomerella cingulata (Stone.) Spauld. & Schrenk. Beans were successfully reinoculated with the fungus. Cultures were deposited at the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC 64682). According to Zaumeyer and Thomas (U.S. Dep. Agric. Tech. Bull. 868,1957), this disease was previously reported by Halsted in New Jersey around 1900. Unfortunately, the reference was inaccurate and the account could not be verified. This is the first report of this disease on field beans in Ontario.