Management of tar spot disease caused by Phyllachora grevilleae subsp. grevilleae on Hakea myrtoides (Proteaceae)
E. M. Davison A B C and F. C. S. Tay AA Department of Environment and Agriculture, Curtin University of Technology, GPO Box 1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia.
B Research Associate of the Western Australian Herbarium, Department of Environment and Conservation, Bentley Delivery Centre, Locked Bag 104, WA 6983, Australia.
C Corresponding author. Email: e.davison@curtin.edu.au
Australian Journal of Botany 58(5) 392-397 https://doi.org/10.1071/BT10008
Submitted: 12 January 2010 Accepted: 19 May 2010 Published: 21 July 2010
Abstract
Hakea myrtoides Meisn. is an attractive shrub that has a restricted distribution in the south-west of Western Australia. It is not killed by fire but re-sprouts from basal lignotubers. Its leaves are often severely affected by tar spot disease, caused by the biotrophic, stromatic ascomycete Phyllachora grevilleae (Lév.) Sacc. subsp. grevilleae (Lév) Sacc. This disease is spread by ascospores that are produced during the wettest months of the year: late autumn, winter and spring. Badly infected populations of H. myrtoides were burnt, either in a controlled burn in November 2007, or in a wildfire in January 2008. The incidence of tar spot disease on leaves of burnt plants in 2008 and 2009 was 4.4%, while its incidence on unburnt plants was significantly higher (25.1%). The incidence of flowering in 2009 was similar in both burnt and unburnt populations. Tar spot disease is common on H. myrtoides; it is present on 77% of collections of this host in the Western Australian Herbarium (PERTH).
Acknowledgements
We thank the Friends of Ellis Brook Valley (Inc.), City of Gosnells Community Grants Scheme, Perth Biodiversity Project and Lotterywest® for financial support. We thank the Gosnells Volunteer Bush Fire Brigade for organising the controlled burn and G. Bremner, P. Davison, T. Dinwoodie, A. Illing, S. Kuyper, T. Rees M. Roberson, G. Schryver and M. Short for assistance with the field surveys and the burn, and E. J. Speijers for statistical advice.
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