First Report of Powdery Mildew on Heath Aster Caused by Erysiphe cichoracearum in Argentina

In 1995, powdery mildew was observed on commercial greenhousegrown Aster ericoides L. from La Plata, Buenos Aires Province. The disease affected about 95% of the growers. Mildew first appeared as white circular patches on the adaxial surface of leaves. As disease progressed, the abaxial surface of leaves, petioles, stems, and calyces were covered by cottony masses of mycelium and conidia, and basal leaves later wilted and died. Young plants (4 to 5 leaves) through flowering plants were affected. Conidia were ovoid-cylindrical, often slightly constricted at the ends, and were produced in chains on unbranched conidiophores. Conidia lacked fibrosin bodies and ranged from 30 to 41 μm × 10 to 19 μm. Long unbranched germ tubes were formed from the ends of conidia. The morphological characteristics of the fungus fit those described for Erysiphe cichoracearum DC (1). In addition, the perfect stage was found on older tissues. Subglobose, dark brown cleistothecia (105 to 210 μm in diameter) with a basal ring of myceloid appendages were observed. Cleistothecia contained multiple ellipsoid asci (48 to 69 μm × 30 to 37 μm) with two hyaline, one-celled, ellipsoid ascospores (22 to 26 μm × 11 to 15 μm). Pathogenicity was tested by pressing diseased leaves onto healthy leaves of aster cv. Sunset and incubating plants in humidity chambers for 48 h. The powdery mildew that developed was morphologically identical to the original isolate. This is the first report of E. cichoracearum on heath aster in Argentina. Reference: (1) H. J. Boesewinkel. Bot. Rev. 46:167, 1980.