Occurrence of Blossom Blight of Chrysanthemum boreale Caused by Didymella chrysanthemi

Black blights attacked the blossom and flower buds of wild chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum boreale) in the experimental field in Hamyang in 1998. The infection rate of the disease on the plant ranged from 4.0 to 91.8%. The pathogen isolated from the infected flower buds produced numerous conidia in pycnidia. The pycnidia, which were immersed into the petals, emerged through the epidermis by short ostiolate neck. Conidia had 0-3 septate (mostly uniseptate) and were 10-27.5 $\times$5-7.5 ㎛ in size. The fungus produced pseudothecia on potato dextrose agar (PDA), and uniseptate ascospores produced in asci were 10$\times$2.7 ㎛ in size. The pathogen also produced pycnidia and pycnidiospores on PDA after 4 weeks in the dark condition. The conidia produced on PDA were smaller than those from infected plants. Based on the examined mycological characteristics, the fungus was identified as Didymella chrsanthemi.