Previous View
 
APSnet Home
 
Plant Disease Home


Disease Note.

Leaf Smut Caused by Ustilago buchloes Found on Buffalograss in Texas. D. R. Huff, B Four Corp., 3334 Richmond, Houston, TX 77098. C. W. Horne, and M. C. Engelke. Department of Plant Pathology, Texas A&M University, College Station 77843; and Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, 17360 Coit Road, Dallas 75252. Plant Dis. 74:80. Accepted for publication 22 September 1989. Copyright 1990 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-74-0080B.

A male buffalograss (Buchloe dactyloides (Nutt.) Engelm.) plant collected from Lee County, Texas, in October 1981 and grown at the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station in Dallas was found to be infected with a leaf smut fungus. The cylindrical sori (0.1-2.0 cm long, 0.5-1.0 mm wide) on the plant were covered by a thin gray membrane and filled with light to dark brown subglobose, minutely echinulate-roughed teliospores 8-12 µm in diameter, including the sheath; sheath thickness ranged from 0.5 to 1.0 µm. The sori occurred on the abaxial leaf surface and on stolons. On the basis of these characteristics, we have identified the fungus as Ustilago buchloes Ellis & Tracy (1). U. buchloes has been reported on buffalograss in New Mexico and Nebraska but has not been previously reported to occur in Texas. Buffalograss is a major component of western Texas rangelands and is used extensively as a low-maintenance turfgrass. This note adds to the reported range of U. huchloes on buffalograss to include areas of seed and sod production.

Reference: (1) J. B. Ellis and S. M. Tracy. J. Mycal. 6:76.1890.