PRESS RELEASE

Plant Doctors Keep Mazes of Maize Healthy

St. Paul, Minn. (September 28, 2004) – Getting lost in the elaborate twists and turns of a cornfield maze can be both a thrilling and chilling experience. The corn plants that people enjoy making mazes from are kept healthy by the efforts of plant pathologists, or plant doctors. This Halloween as you walk through your local corn maze, the Plant Doctors with The American Phytopathological Society want you to remember the work plant pathologists do to keep corn healthy all year round.

“Plant pathologists have been involved in the identification and in the development of control methods for virtually every disease affecting corn,” said Donald White, plant pathologist with the University of Illinois, Urbana, Ill.

Diseases that plant pathologists battle in order to keep corn healthy for consumers and maze adventurers alike include common rust and southern rust, which cause reddish-brown pustules to appear on the leaves; gray leaf spot, which produces tannish-brown, rectangular lesions on corn leaves; northern corn leaf blight, which causes numerous gray-green, cigar-shaped lesions to appear on corn leaves; and maize dwarf mosaic virus, which produces spots and streaks on corn leaves that resemble a mosaic.

According to White, plant pathologists are continually researching methods to treat and control theses diseases. More information on corn diseases is available in the Compendium of Corn, Third Edition available through APS PRESS at http://store.yahoo.com/shopapspress/42341.html. 

The American Phytopathological Society (APS) is a non-profit, professional scientific organization. The research of the organization’s 5,000 worldwide members advances the understanding of the science of plant pathology and its application to plant health.