Disease Note.

First Report of Rust on Salvia coccinea in Louisiana. G. E. Holcomb, Department of Plant Pathology and Crop Physiology, Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station, Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, Baton Rouge 70803. R. A. Valverde, Department of Plant Pathology and Crop Physiology, Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station, Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, Baton Rouge 70803. Plant Dis. 79:426. Accepted for publication 27 February 1995. Copyright 1995 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-79-0426A.

Numerous blackish-brown, raised telia of Puccinia salviicola Dielel & Holw. were observed on stems of Texas sage, Salvia coccinea Juss. ex J. Murr., cultivars Bicolor, Lactea, and Punicea, in Baton Rouge in December 1994. Although other Salvia species (S. leucantha Cav., S. guarani-tica St.-Hil., and S. elegans Vahl.) were present in the same planting, only 5. coccinea was infected with the pathogen. Cinnamon-brown uredinial and occasional telial pustules were observed on leaves of infected plants. The pathogen was identified by following the key of Baxter and Cummins (I) and based only on uredinial and telial characteristics: urediniospores 19-25 x21-27 μm, prominently echinulate with two equatorial pores; telia blackish-brown, teliospores puccinioid with thin-walled pedicels attached at right angles to the septum, 18-28 x35-50 μm, wall appearing smooth, 2.7–4.6 μm thick, pore of upper cell apical and pore of lower cell next to septum. Although S. coccinea is native from South Carolina to Texas, this rust has been previously reported only from Florida (1903) and Texas (1908) (1).