SYMPTOMATOLOGICAL AND HISTOPATHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS ON OIL PALMS FROM BRAZIL AND ECUADOR AFFECTED BY FATAL YELLOWING

Fatal yellowing in oil palms from Brazil and Ecuador is characterized by a chlorosis of the young unfolded leaves and a decay of spear leaves. Contrary to healthy-looking palms, diseased palms do not have roots with soft and white tips. In search for a possible causal agent of fatal yellowing, tissues of leaves, the apical region of stems and root tips of healthy-looking and diseased palms were examined by light microscopy. Fungi and bacteria were frequently, but not always found in necrotic lesions in the leaves. These organisms, however, have never been found outside the lesions or in the vascular tissues of affected palms, nor in the tissues of healthy-looking palms. Tyloses frequently occluded the xylem vessels of affected leaves. In a diseased palm from Ecuador hypertrophic cells were found in the epidermal layer of the pinnae of a spear leaf with water-soaked lesions. In the apical region of the stems and roots of diseased palms, only a few meristematic cells could be detected. © 1990 Koninklijke Nederlandse Planteziektenkundige Vereniging.