In February of 2000-2001, the gray mold disease occurred on nephrolepis (Nephrolepis sp.) grown in a flower
nursery farm in Suwen, Korea. Typical symptoms were water-soaked brown or blackish lesions on terminal
leaf blades. Severely infected leaves we...
In February of 2000-2001, the gray mold disease occurred on nephrolepis (Nephrolepis sp.) grown in a flower
nursery farm in Suwen, Korea. Typical symptoms were water-soaked brown or blackish lesions on terminal
leaf blades. Severely infected leaves were entirely blighted with grayish fungal mycelia formed on the surface.
Conidia of the fungus in mass were hyaline or gray, 1-celled, mostly ellipsoid or ovoid and 13.5~16.9 × 6.8~9.2
μm in size. Conidiophores were formed on PDA with 8.7~11.1 μm in width. The sclerotia were readily formed
within 2 or 3 days on PDA. In addition, the Biolog database gave the causal fungus a high similarity to Botrytis
cinerea (78%) with a match probability of 100%. Pathogenicity of the causal organism was proved according
to Koch's postulate. The causal organism was identified as Botrytis cinerea based on its mycological characteristics
and utilization of carbon sources with Biolog system as supporting data. This is the first report of
gray mold of nephrolepis caused by Botrytis cinerea in Korea.