ISOLATION OF DISCULA-DESTRUCTIVA AND OTHER FUNGI FROM SEEDS OF DOGWOOD TREES

Dogwood fruit were collected from trees with symptoms of dogwood anthracnose in 11 locations in western North Carolina in September 1989-1991. Fruit from each location were divided into four groups based on symptoms: completely necrotic, discrete necrotic lesions, shriveled without necrosis, and symptomless. Fruit and extracted seeds were surface-disinfested and placed on acidified potato-dextrose agar. Discula destructiva was isolated more often from seeds than from whole fruit, particularly from seeds extracted from completely necrotic fruit. The mean isolation frequency from extracted seeds was 0.12 in 1989, following a wet summer. D. destructiva was isolated from only 0.008 and 0.05 of extracted seeds in 1990 and 1991, respectively, when spring and early-summer rains were followed by midsummer dry periods. Infected seeds could provide a mechanism for long-distance dispersal of D. destructiva by animals or birds.