Canker

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Butternut canker is a lethal disease of butternut trees, and has no cure. Butternut canker.jpg
Butternut canker is a lethal disease of butternut trees, and has no cure.

A plant canker is a small area of dead tissue, which grows slowly, often over years. Some cankers are of only minor consequence, but others are ultimately lethal and therefore can have major economic implications for agriculture and horticulture. Their causes include a wide range of organisms as fungi, bacteria, mycoplasmas and viruses. The majority of canker-causing organisms are bound to a unique host species or genus, but a few will attack other plants. Weather (via frost or windstorm damage) and animal damage can also cause stress to the plant resulting in cankers. Other causes of cankers is pruning when the bark is wet or using un-sterilized tools. [1]

Contents

Although fungicides or bactericides can treat some cankers, often the only available treatment is to destroy the infected plant to contain the disease.

Examples

Tree cankers (right) are caused by injuries to the bark that allow pathogens or insects in to infect the tree. Compared above is a healthy tree and segment (left) to a tree infected and containing a canker. Tree Canker.svg
Tree cankers (right) are caused by injuries to the bark that allow pathogens or insects in to infect the tree. Compared above is a healthy tree and segment (left) to a tree infected and containing a canker.

See also

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<i>Colletotrichum fioriniae</i> Fungal species Colletotrichum fioriniae

Colletotrichum fioriniae is a fungal plant pathogen and endophyte of fruits and foliage of many broadleaved plants worldwide. It causes diseases on agriculturally important crops, including anthracnose of strawberry, ripe rot of grapes, bitter rot of apple, anthracnose of peach, and anthracnose of blueberry. Its ecological role in the natural environment is less well understood, other than it is a common leaf endophyte of many temperate trees and shrubs and in some cases may function as an entomopathogen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bitter rot of apple</span> Plant disease

Bitter rot of apple is a fungal disease of apple fruit that is caused by several species in the Colletotrichum acutatum and Colletotrichum gloeosporioides species complexes. It is identified by sunken circular lesions with conical intrusions into the apple flesh that appear V-shaped when the apple is cut in half through the center of the lesion. It is one of the most devastating diseases of apple fruit in regions with warm wet weather.

References

  1. "Canker Diseases". The Morton Arboretum. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  2. Gardan, L.; Shafik, H.; Belouin, S.; Broch, R.; Grimont, F.; Grimont, P. A. D. (1 April 1999). "DNA relatedness among the pathovars of Pseudomonas syringae and description of Pseudomonas tremae sp. nov. and Pseudomonas cannabina sp. nov. (ex Sutic and Dowson 1959)". International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology. 49 (2): 469–478. doi: 10.1099/00207713-49-2-469 . PMID   10319466.
  3. Southwest Canker
  4. Smith, B. J. (2007). "Developmental Stage and Temperature Affect Strawberry Flower and Fruit Susceptibility to Anthracnose". In Takeda, F.; Handley, D. T.; Poling, E. B. (eds.). Proceedings 2007 North American Strawberry Symposium. Kemptville, ON Canada: North American Strawberry Growers Association. pp. 55–57.
  5. Dowling, Madeline; Peres, Natalia; Villani, Sara; Schnabel, Guido (2020). "Managing Colletotrichum on Fruit Crops: A "Complex" Challenge". Plant Disease. 104 (9): 2301–2316. doi: 10.1094/PDIS-11-19-2378-FE . ISSN   0191-2917. PMID   32689886. S2CID   219479598.
  6. Damm, U.; Cannon, P. F.; Woudenberg, J. H. C.; Crous, P. W. (2012). "The Colletotrichum acutatum species complex". Studies in Mycology. complex species or species complexes?. 73: 37–113. doi:10.3114/sim0010. ISSN   0166-0616. PMC   3458416 . PMID   23136458.