The incidence of Septoria disease on Pistacia spp in Ghazvin and Fars provinces

Septoriosis is one of the most important disease in pistachio tree worldwide and is incited by several species of Septoria among which S. pistacina islimited to Mediterranea regions and recently reported on Pistacia vera in Golestan province of Iran (Aghajani et al. 2009. Austr. Plant Dis. Notes 4: 29-31). Leaf samples of P. vera from Ghazvin (Fig. 1) collected in October 2013, and samples from P. mutica (Baneh) (Fig. 2) collected also in October 2009 from Darab in Fars province showed various sizes of discolored leaf spots with many pycnidia embedded in leaf tissue extruding dark cirri. Pycnidiospores were filiform, curved, hyaline with one septum measuring 2.5 x 30 µm in Ghazvin and 2.5 x 31.6 µm from Darab samples. Single spore conidia from both locations exhibited yeast like growth on PDA. Based on morphological and growth pattern and host the fungus was identified as Septoria pistacina (Chitzandis 1956. Anna. Inst.Phyto. Ben. 10: 29-44). The species has recently been proposed to be transferred to Pseudocercospora pistacina (Crous et al. 2013. IMA Fungus 4: 187-199) which needs further support. Pycnidiospores from P.mutica samples maintained low germination after 4 years in dry leaf under laboratory conditions. This is the first report on the presence of the fungus in Ghazvin on P. vera and based on available information for the first time on P. mutica in world.