Japanese Fungi on Plants No.6 before next top
Balansia
epiphyte [Balansia spp. =Ephelis japonica Henn.]
Classification: Ascomycota, Pyrenomycetes, Hypocreales, Clavicipitaceae
Distributed south from Kanto, the central part of Japan and parasitizes many
warm season
grasses (C4 plants), such as knotgrass, bermudagrass and lovegrass. Causes
black choke disease on all plant species infected and producing white hyphal
streak on the leaves, but the plant vigor is not so affected. The infected plants
are
conferred with insect resistance and tolerance to environmental stresses, but
not so effective compared with Neotyphodium endophyte. Not
seed-transmitted.
Characteristics: Epiphyte, Plant pathogen Symptom: JPEG
(Knotgrass, Black choke, 35kb)
Morphology: Teleomorph: The genus, Balansia. The head of infected grasses is covered by dense white to gray hyphal mat and round stromata rise from pseudo-sclerotia produced on the mat. Ellipsoidal ascocarp embedded in the surface of stromata, producing cylindrical asci inside. Ascospores hyaline, needle-shaped, about 20 x 1 um. Anamorph: On conidiophores from hyphal strands, producing many conidia hyaline, single-celled, needle-shaped, about 15-20 x 1 um. |
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Conidia (nuclear stained) | Hyphal strands and conidia on the leaf suface |
Colony |
Herbarium specimen in NIAES
Specimen No. | Scientific name | Host name | Host scientific name | Symptoms | Geographical origin | Collected date | Collector |
135-1-33 | Ephelis japonica | Knotgrass | Paspalum thunbergii | Black choke | Nishinasuno, Tochigi | 1995.5 | Tsukiboshi, T. |
135-1-34 | " | Paragrass | Brachiaria mutica | " | Ishigaki, Okinawa | 1998.3 | " |
(Described by Tsukiboshi, T., NIAES, Microbial Systemtics Lab., 2002)
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