Disease Note.

Mycocentrospora cladosporioides from Olive Drupes in Sardinia. A. Bottalico, Istituto di Patologia vegetale dell'Universita. Sassari. P. Corda. Istituto di Patologia vegetale dell'Universita. Sassari, and A. Logrieco, Istituto tossine e Micotossine del CNR, Bari, Italy. Plant Dis. 79:320. Accepted for publication 30 July 1994. Copyright 1995 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-79-0320B.

Mycocentrospora cladosporioides (Sacc.) P. Costa ex Deighton (syn = Cercospora cladosporioides Sacc.) was isolated from drupes of olive (Olea europaea L), oil cultivar Tondo, collected in olive-growing areas near Sassari, Italy, in January 1992. Diseased ripe drupes showed slightly sunken light brown spots scattered over the entire surface. The spots appeared depressed and regular in shape, without any halo. The conidia were produced on dark microstromata emerging through cracks in the epidermis when the fruits were incubated in a moisture chamber. The fungus was isolated in pure culture and reisolated from artificially infected drupes. The foliar disease (piombatura) caused by M. cladosporioides occurs in all olive-growing areas in Italy, but attacks of the fungus on fruit were rarely observed, and only in Sicily (1). The occurrence of M. cladosporioides on olive fruit in Sardinia was observed during an olive-ripening season characterized by humid weather and mild temperatures. The spots became increasingly significant on over ripened olive fruit