Phoma clematidina
| Phoma clematidina | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Dothideomycetes |
| Order: | Pleosporales |
| Family: | Didymellaceae |
| Genus: | Phoma |
| Species: | P. clematidina |
| Binomial name | |
|
Phoma clematidina (Thüm.) Boerema (1978) |
|
| Synonyms | |
|
Ascochyta clematidina Thüm. (1880) |
|
Ascochyta clematidina Thüm. (1880)
Phyllosticta clematis Brunaud (1889)
Phyllosticta clematis Ellis & Dearn. (1893)
Ascochyta indusiata Bres. & Hedwigia (1896)
Ascochyta davidiana Kabát & Bubák (1904)
Phoma clematidina is a fungal plant pathogen and the most common cause of the disease clematis wilt affecting large-flowered varieties of Clematis. Symptoms of infection include leaf spotting, wilting of leaves, stems or the whole plant and internal blackening of the stem, often at soil level. Infected plants growing in containers may also develop root rot.
The asexual stage (anamorph) of the fungus was first described by the German botanist and mycologist Felix von Thümen in 1880 as Ascochyta clematidina. Based on new scientific insights into the differences in spore formation between species, it was reclassified as Phoma clematidina by the Dutch mycologist Gerhard Boerema in 1978.
Genetic sequencing has suggested that Phoma clematidina is heterothallic which means that two compatible strains (mating types) of the fungus would need to come together under the right environmental conditions to produce a sexual stage (teleomorph). Both mating types of Phoma clematidina are known to occur in Europe, and yet no sexual stage (which is most likely to be a Didymella species) has ever been described.
Molecular phylogenetic analyses have revealed that some fungal isolates recovered from wild Clematis species, previously identified as Phoma clematidina, are in fact two closely related species of Phoma and Ascochyta with the sexual stages Didymella vitalbina and Didymella clematidis respectively. The latter fungus has been successfully used as a biological control agent of Clematis vitalba, which is seen as an invasive plant in New Zealand. Unlike Phoma clematidina, the two closely related Didymella species (and their anamorphs) have not been found on large-flowered Clematis varieties.
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Wikipedia