First record of Asperisporium caricae causing black spot of papaya in the Philippines
C. J. R. Cumagun A B and C. L. Padilla AA Crop Protection Cluster, University of the Philippines, Los Baños College, Laguna 4031, Philippines.
B Corresponding author. Email: christian_cumagun@yahoo.com
Australasian Plant Disease Notes 2(1) 89-90 https://doi.org/10.1071/DN07036
Submitted: 14 May 2007 Accepted: 30 May 2007 Published: 14 June 2007
Abstract
Black spot of papaya caused by Asperisporium caricae is reported for the first time in the Philippines. Among the four provinces surveyed, the disease was found on papaya variety ‘red lady’ in Batangas and Cavite, but not in Laguna and Quezon.
Asperisporium caricae causes black spot of papaya, also known as leaf blight and leaf spot of papaya. It has been reported in Asia, Africa, the Western Hemisphere, USA and Oceania. In Asia, the disease was reported to be widespread in China, particularly in Taiwan, and India (EPPO 2005). The disease is also present in Sri Lanka (Adikaram and Wijepala 1995) but has not been recorded in the Philippines. The disease can cause significant damage to the leaves and fruits.
A survey of papaya diseases was conducted in four provinces in the Philippines: Batangas, Laguna, Cavite and Quezon. In March 2007, typical symptoms of black leaf spot of papaya were collected in Silang and Indang, Cavite and Lipa, Batangas, south of Manila, on variety papaya ‘red lady’. Symptoms of the disease and the causal organism were similar to that previously reported. The disease was not found in Laguna and Quezon.
The fungus on the infected papaya leaves was identified as A. caricae by comparison with the description and illustrations in Ellis and Holliday (1972) and Liberato and Shivas (2006).
