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 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.
Dothideomycetes is the largest and most diverse class of ascomycete fungi. It comprises 11 orders 90 families, 1,300 genera and over 19,000 known species. Wijayawardene et al. in 2020 added more orders to the class.
Colletotrichum acutatum is a plant pathogen and endophyte. It is the organism that causes the most destructive fungal disease, anthracnose, of lupin species worldwide. It also causes the disease postbloom fruit drop on many varieties of citrus, especially Valencia and navel oranges in Florida.
The Pleosporales is the largest order in the fungal class Dothideomycetes. By a 2008 estimate, it contained 23 families, 332 genera and more than 4700 species. The majority of species are saprobes on decaying plant material in fresh water, marine, or terrestrial environments, but several species are also associated with living plants as parasites, epiphytes or endophytes. The best studied species cause plant diseases on important agricultural crops e.g. Cochliobolus heterostrophus, causing southern corn leaf blight on maize, Phaeosphaeria nodorum causing glume blotch on wheat and Leptosphaeria maculans causing a stem canker on cabbage crops (Brassica). Some species of Pleosporales occur on animal dung, and a small number occur as lichens and rock-inhabiting fungi.
Phoma is a genus of common coelomycetous soil fungi. It contains many plant pathogenic species.
The Lophiostomataceae are a family of fungi in the order Pleosporales. Taxa have a widespread distribution, especially in temperate regions, and are saprobic or necrotrophic on herbaceous and woody stems.
Teratosphaeriaceae is a family of fungi in the order Mycosphaerellales.
Ross Ewen Beever was a New Zealand geneticist and mycologist.
The Didymellaceae are a family of fungi in the order Pleosporales. They have a world-wide distribution.
Glomerellales is an order of ascomycetous fungi within the subclass Hypocreomycetidae (Sordariomycetes). The order includes saprobes, endophytes and pathogens on plants, animals and other fungi with representatives found all over the world in varying habitats.
Boeremia exigua is the type species of the fungus genus, Boeremia, in the Didymellaceae family. It was first described as Phoma exigua by John Baptiste Henri Joseph Desmazières in 1849, and transferred to the genus, Boeremia, by M.M. Aveskamp, J. de Gruyter, J.H.C. Woudenberg, G.J.M. Verkley and P.W. Crous in 2010.
Mariannaea is a genus of fungi belonging to the family Nectriaceae.
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.
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.
Coniothyriaceae is a family of ascomycetous marine based fungi within the order of Pleosporales in the subclass Pleosporomycetidae and within the class Dothideomycetes. They are pathogenic or they can be saprobic on dead branches. They are generally a anamorphic species.
