New fungus found to cause cankers and declines in pistachio trees in Sicily, Italy

(Pensoft Publishers) Since 2010, pistachio farmers from Sicily have been reporting a disease on the trees, characterised by cankers and declines, sometimes leading to the collapse of entire plants. Having surveyed 15 pistachio orchards from three provinces, as well as potted plants, an international team of researchers identified a new disease caused by a previously unknown fungus. The aetiology of the disease and the new pathogenic species are described in the open access journal MycoKeys.
Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - Category: Biology Source Type: news