First Report of Fusarium Blight on Majesty Palm Caused by Fusarium proliferatum in Italy

During spring 2002, a new disease of majesty palm (Ravenea rivularis Jumelle & H. Perrier) was observed on young, container-grown plants (3 to 4 years old with five to seven expanded leaves) in a nursery in eastern Sicily. Initial symptoms on the youngest, expanded leaves and especially on the unopened, spear leaves were small, reddish-brown necrotic lesions (2 to 4 mm in diameter) with a yellow halo. In high humidity, lesions increased in size and number, coalescing into large, irregular dead areas. These symptoms developed into blights of the youngest, unopened leaves. As a consequence, infected leaves would dieback and only a few plants recovered from these severe infections. On the surviving plants, reddish-brown necrotic lesions appeared on the rachis. From these lesions, 30 pieces of tissue were cut, surface sterilized (30 s in 1.2% wt/vol of NaOCl), washed with sterile water, and plated on potato dextrose agar supplemented with 1.1 μl/ml of lactic acid (stock 88 to 92%) (A-PDA). Conidia and conidiophores were collected directly from the tissue with a flamed needle and placed on A-PDA. Fusarium sp. was consistently isolated from the necrotic tissue, and after 3 days, single hyphal tips were transferred to pure cultures from which were obtained two single, conidial isolates. These fungal isolates were forwarded to the CABI Bioscience U.K. Centre, Bakeham Lane (Egham), Surrey, U.K., where both isolates were identified as Fusarium proliferatum (T. Matsushima) Nirenberg. A morpho-biometrical characterization was performed on carnation leaf agar with a photoperiod of 10 h. Macroconidia were slender, lightly falcate to almost straight, 3- to 5-septate, and ranged from 37 to 53 × 2.5 to 3 μm (average 44.1 × 2.8 μm). Microconidia, clavate or oval with a truncated base, were formed in chains from mono- or polyphialides. Chlamydospores were absent. Eight 2-year-old seedlings (three to five expanded leaves) of majesty palm had the unopened spear leaves needle-wounded and another eight were unwounded. All were sprayed with a conidial suspension (1.5 × 10(6) CFU/ml). An equal number of noninoculated plants were used as a control. All plants were covered with polyethylene bags and incubated in a greenhouse at 25 ± 2°C for 72 h. All wounded majesty palms showed brown areas on unopened spear leaves. When natural injures were present, reddish leaf spots appeared as early as 4 days after inoculation. Macroscopic observations revealed the presence of white mycelium on the necrotic areas and reddish spots. Koch's postulates were satisfied by reisolation of the fungus on A-PDA from artificially infected tissues. On the basis of 3 months of field observations in Sicily, spread of Fusarium blight on majesty palm was always greater when plants were injured on the tender and unopened leaves by volcanic cinders from Mt. Etna, which caused bruises on young leaves. The disease does not represent a major threat to nurseries, but it could cause loss in the cultivation of the majesty palm. F. proliferatum was previously recorded in Saudi Arabia as the causal agent of wilt and dieback of date palm (1). To our knowledge, this is the first report of F. proliferatum on palms in Italy and the first outbreak of the disease on majesty palm.