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Disease Note. Leaf Smut Caused by Ustilago buchloes Found on Buffalograss in Texas. D. R. Huff, B Four Corp., 3334 Richmond, Houston, TX 77098. C. W. Horne, and M. C. Engelke. Department of Plant Pathology, Texas A&M University, College Station 77843; and Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, 17360 Coit Road, Dallas 75252. Plant Dis. 74:80. Accepted for publication 22 September 1989. Copyright 1990 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-74-0080B. A male buffalograss (Buchloe dactyloides (Nutt.) Engelm.) plant
collected from Lee County, Texas, in October 1981 and grown at
the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station in Dallas was found to
be infected with a leaf smut fungus. The cylindrical sori (0.1-2.0 cm
long, 0.5-1.0 mm wide) on the plant were covered by a thin gray
membrane and filled with light to dark brown subglobose, minutely
echinulate-roughed teliospores 8-12 µm in diameter, including the
sheath; sheath thickness ranged from 0.5 to 1.0 µm. The sori occurred
on the abaxial leaf surface and on stolons. On the basis of these
characteristics, we have identified the fungus as Ustilago buchloes
Ellis & Tracy (1). U. buchloes has been reported on buffalograss in New
Mexico and Nebraska but has not been previously reported to occur
in Texas. Buffalograss is a major component of western Texas rangelands
and is used extensively as a low-maintenance turfgrass. This
note adds to the reported range of U. huchloes on buffalograss to
include areas of seed and sod production. |