Morphological and cultural characters of Colletotrichum gloeosporioides causing anthracnose of pomegranate

Abstract

In vitro studies on morphological and cultural characters of Colletotrichum gloeosporioides was carried out in the Department of Plant Pathology, College of Agriculture, Osmanabad during the year 2011-12. The culture of C. gloeosporioides exhibited diversity with respect to cultural characters like type of the growth, mycelial colour, pigmentation and sporulation on different media. The maximum radial growth of C. gloeosporioides was recorded on potato dextrose agar (90.00 mm), followed by oat meal agar (86.00 mm), host leaf extract agar (81.60 mm), Richards's agar (80.60 mm), malt extract agar (80.40mm) and Sabouraud dextrose agar (80.00mm). The least radial growth was recorded in Czapek (Dox) agar (74.60 mm).The nonsynthetic/semi synthetic media recorded maximum growth compared to synthetic media. Mycelium colour varied from white to black. The growth varied from flat, raised fluffy to sparse. Pigmentation in the media also varied from brown to black and light pink to orange. Sporulation also showed greater variation in different media, ranging from excellent to poor sporulation. Excellent sporulation was recorded on potato dextrose agar and moderate sporulation in Oatmeal agar and Richards's agar. Poor sporulation was recorded in malt extract agar and Czapek (Dox) agar.