Velvet blight explained

Velvet blight
Hosts:	tea
Causal Agents:	Septobasidium bogoriense, S. pilosum and S. theae
Eppo Codes:	1SEPBG

Velvet blight is a disease that affects the stems, branches, leaves, fruits or trunks of plants and trees. This disease is primarily caused by three fungal species from the genus Septobasidium: S. bogoriense, S. pilosum and S. theae.

It is known to affect mainly tea plants (genus Thea).^[1] The most studied of these species is S. bogoriense, most notably due to the work of Ernst Albert Gäumann. S. bogoriense is named after the Herbarium Bogoriense (Bogor, West Java, Indonesia) which is the place where it was first identified on the bark of an unspecified tree and named by E. Nyman on June 3, 1898. This species was also listed in Otto Warburg's Monsunia in 1900.

Distribution

This disease is mainly found in tropical climates in Southern Asia, however some scattering exists:

S. bogoriense

• Java, Indonesia
• Sri Lanka
• Tonkin, China
• Japan
• North Queensland, Australia
• West Indies
• La Campana, Panama
• Northern Vietnam
• Washington, USA
• India^[2]

S. pilosum

• Java, Indonesia
• Taiwan
• Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
• Florida, USA

S. theae

• Java, Indonesia
• Lam dong, Viet Nam

Known primary hosts

S. bogoriense

Coffea, Cinchona, Thea, Broussonetia, Morus, Citrus, Manihot, Ficus elastica, Solanum quitoense, Erythrina, Crotalaria sp., Tephrosia candida, Leucaena glauca, Sesbania aegyptiaca, Lantana, Stachytarpheta mutabilis, Paritium, Calosanthes indica, Fraxinus, Marsdenia, Piper nigrum, Polyosma, Rosa, Wigandia kunthii, Macaranga tanarius, Bougainvillea,^[3] Hibiscus rosa sub.sp. sinensis, and sub.sp. mangifera.

S. pilosum

Thea, Mangifera indica, Magnolia virginiana, and Artabotrys.

S. theae

Thea.

Further reading

• Warburg, Otto. Monsunia: Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Vegetation des süd-und ostasiatischen Monsungebietes. Vol. 1. W. Engelmann, 1900.
• Sarma, Y. R., N. Ramachandran, and M. Anandaraj. "Black pepper diseases in India." In: Diseases of Black Pepper. Proceedings of the Int. Pepper Comm. Wkshop. in Jt. Res. for Control of Black Pepper Diseases (1988): 27–29.
• Couch, John Nathaniel. "A monograph of Septobasidium. Part I. Jamaican species." Jour. Elisha Mitchell Soc 44 (1929): 242–260.
• Peregrine. W. T. H.. AHMAD. Hj. KASSIM BIN. ABAS. AHMAD BIN Hj.. Sutton. B. C.. A serious disease of seedling rambutan caused by Pseudocercospora nephelii sp. nov.. Plant Pathology. 39. 1. 1990. 197–201. 0032-0862. 10.1111/j.1365-3059.1990.tb02490.x.

Notes and References

1. Subba Rao, M. K. "Report of the Mycologist." Adm. Rep. Tea sci. Dep. Unit. Plant. Ass. S. India, 1935-36. (1936): 46-54.
2. Das, G. M. "Observations on the association of ants with coccids of tea."Bulletin of entomological Research 50.03 (1959): 437-448.
3. Sivapalan, A., and Fuziah Haji Hamdan. "Bacterial leaf spot of bougainvillea caused by Pseudomonas andropogonis in Brunei Darussalam." EPPO Bulletin27.2‐3 (1997): 273-275.