A canker disease of broad bean (Vicia faba L.) pods was observed annually from February to April every year since 1995. Disease incidence ranged from 45 to 100% in commercial fields and experimental plots at the Central Agricultural University, Imphal, Manipur. Initial symptoms on young pods appeared as bright yellow, scattered spots 1 to 2 mm in diameter that later became raised, black, and corky within 12 days. As the disease progressed, the lesions coalesced and formed large cankers, which resulted in unmarketable pods. Surface-sterilized symptomatic tissues were plated on potato-dextrose agar (PDA) and the fungus that grew out was identified as Pestalotiopsis disseminata. One culture was deposited at the Indian Type Culture Collection, Division of Plant Pathology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. Pathogenicity of the fungus was determined by pipetting two drops of a 3 × 103 conidia/ml spore suspension on each of five healthy young pods and repeating on each of 10 plants. A similar five pods inoculated with sterile water served as controls. Inoculated broad bean plants were covered with plastic bags for 48 h and placed into the open under shade having a temperature range of 25 to 28°C. Corky lesions similar to those originally observed developed within 16 days on inoculated pods. Symptoms did not appear on control pods. Necrotic tissues from artificially induced broad bean cankers were plated on PDA and consistently yielded P. disseminata. This is the first report of P. disseminata on broad bean in India.
