Disease Note:

Anchusa italica as an Alternate Host for Wheat Leaf Rust in Morocco. B. Ezzahiri, Departement de Phytopathologie, Institut Agronomique et Veterinaire, Hassan II, Rabat, Morocco. S. Diouri, and A. P. Roelfs. Departement de Phytopathologie, Institut Agronomique et Veterinaire, Hassan II, Rabat, Morocco, and USDA-ARS, Cereal Rust Laboratory, University of Minnesota, St. Paul 55108. Plant Dis. 76:1185. Accepted for publication 21 July 1992. Copyright 1992 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-76-1185A.

Alternate hosts of Puccinia recondita Roberge ex Desmaz. are generally regarded as unimportant in wheat leaf rust epidemiology. Anchusa italica Retz. had been reported as an alternate host for a portion of the P. recondita species complex in Morocco. We found that A. italica was an important source of inoculum. Local durum wheat cultivars were heavily infected with leaf rust in fields infested with A. italica, and abundant telia formed on green leaves. Few telia or infected Anchusa plants were found in bread wheat fields. Aecia were first observed in late December 1991, with a crop of aecia developing after each rain until mid-May 1992. After initial infection, fields with more telia generally had more aecia, and those that had telia on upper leaves showed aecia higher in the Anchusa plant. Aeciospores were used to infect the bread wheat cultivar Morocco. Urediniospores collected from wheat near infected Anchusa plants belonged to races UN1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, II, 13, 14, and 17.