Disease Note.

Bacterial Leaf Spot of Statice Caused by Pseudomonas andropogonis. D. Anderson, Department of Plant Pathology, Kansas State University, Manhattan 66506. N. Tisserat, Department of Plant Pathology, Kansas State University, Manhattan 66506. Plant Dis. 78:1218. Accepted for publication 24 August 1994. Copyright 1994 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-78-1218C.

In August 1993, leaf and flower scape lesions were noted on approximately 30% of statice plants (Limonium sinuatum (L.) Mill.) in four commercial plantings in Kansas. Reddish brown, water-soaked lesions often coalesced and girdled the scape, resulting in death of the inflorescence. A gram-negative, nonfluorescent bacterium was consistently isolated from the lesions. The bacterium was identified as Pseudomonas andropogonis (E.F. Smith) Stapp. by carbon source utilization (similarity coefficient = 0.706 at 24 hr; Biolog, Inc., Hayward, CA) and immunodot assays to polyclonal antisera (1). Leaves and scapes of healthy L. sinuatum were infiltrated with 10-100 μ 1 of a l07-cfu/ml suspension of P. andropogonis, then incubated on a greenhouse bench at 25-32 C under an intermittent mist system for I wk. Necrotic lesions, identical to those on naturally infected plants, developed on all inoculated plants within 4-7 days. The bacterium was reisolated from the lesions. This is the first report of P. andropogonis on statice in the United States, although the bacterium has previously been reported on this host in Australia (2).