Pearl Millet Diseases
Fungal Diseases

Curvularia Leaf Spot

Curvularia penniseti (Mitra) Boedijn

Symptoms: Small yellow-brown spots on leaves expand to oblong lesions. Centers of lesions change to brown and margins remain yellow. Lesions are more common on leaf margins.

Pathogen and disease characteristics: Conidia are 29-42 × 13-20 µm at broadest part, triseptate, clavate, and almost always slightly curved at the third cell from the base, which is larger than the others. Cell at each end are subhyaline or pale, intermediate cells are brown, third cell from the base is usually more pigmented and darker.

Host range: Oryza, Pennisetum, Sorghum, Triticum. Isolated from Allium, Dolichos, and Richardia.

Geographic distribution: Australia, India, Indonesia, Malawi, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, continental United States, Hawaii (C. lunata, Raabe et al. 1981), Zimbabwe.

Nomenclature discrepancies: Synonyms or similar pathogens:

Acrothecium penniseti Mitra

Other species of Curvularia can be isolated from pearl millet, including:

Curvularia geniculata (Tracy & Earle) Boed.
Curvularia lunata (Wakker) Boed. [A toxin produced by this pathogen is related to host and cultivar specificity (Gour et al. 1992).]

No information is available to indicate if symptoms caused by other species of Curvularia differ from symptoms caused by C. penniseti.

See table 3 for additional Curvularia species pathogenic to Pennisetum.

Seed transmission: Curvularia species are frequently isolated from seed.

Primary citations: Luttrell 1954, Sivanesan 1990a.

previous page

next page

United States Department of Agriculture
Agricultural Research Service

The material on this page is in the public domain.

Original posting: June 5, 1999.