Disease Note.

First Report of Septoria Fruit and Leaf Spot, Caused by Septoria cucurbitacearum, on Cucurbita moschata in Illinois.. D. M. Eastburn, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Plant Dis. 75:1186. Accepted for publication 29 July 1991. Copyright 1991 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-75-1186E.

During the 1990 growing season, a severe virus epidemic developed on grain legumes grown in the Palouse region of eastern Washington and northern Idaho. Symptoms in pea (Pisum sativum L.) included stunting, chlorosis, pod necrosis, enations on leaves and pods, and chlorotic islands or windows on leaves. Like pea, symptoms in lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) and chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) included stunting and foliar chlorosis with distortions. Reddening of leaf margins progressing to the entire leaf, pod and bud blight, and mosaics were especially common in chickpea. Incidence of symptomatic plants in chickpea fields approached 100%, whereas incidence in pea and lentil fields did not exceed 80%. Leaf samples were collected in early July from pea, lentil, and chickpea fields and analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the presence of pea streak virus (PSV), alfalfa mosaic virus (AMV), pea enation mosaic virus (PEMV), and bean leafroll virus (BLRV). Of 114 samples tested, 29 were positive for PEMV, 27 for BLRV, and 2 for PSV. AMV was not detected. Although nearly 50% of the samples failed to react in the ELISA tests, PEMV and BLRV were the predominant identifiable viruses causing the 1990 virus epidemic of grain legumes in the Palouse.