Record of Sordaria fimicola Causing Dieback on Juniperus phoenicea in Al-Jabal Al-Akhdar – Libya

• Ayhaab A. Zatout

  Department of Forestry and Rangeland, Faculty of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, University of Derna, Libya

  Author

• Nwara A. Mohamed

  Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, Omar Al-Mukhtar University, Libya.

  Author

• Mohamed A. Saeed

  Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, Omar Al-Mukhtar University, Libya.

  Author

This study is the first record of the fungus Sordaria fimicola as one of the causes of death for the Juniperus phoenicea L trees in the Al-Jabal Al-Akhdar region, Libya, where severe deterioration occurred as a result of partial or complete death, and the symptoms of the disease were characterized by the gradual death of the branches from the limbs towards the trunk (Dieback), accompanied by yellowing of the leaves, turning brown, and ends with their falling off and leaving branches without leaves. Isolation was carried out on leaves and branches that show symptoms of tree mortality to obtain the primary cause of the disease and to verify its pathogenicity by infection of seedlings of Juniperus phoenicea or infection of recent branches. The fungus was identified depending on the morphological characteristics of the colony growing on the nutrient medium potato dextrose agar, in addition to measuring the vegetative and reproductive structures taken by a light microscope. The results showed that the fungus Sordaria fimicola is one of the causes of juniper mortality, as it was distinguished by a dark, pear-shaped fruiting body with an average length of 9.77 ± 480.93 μm and an average width of 66.06 ± 441.285 μm, inside which are asci containing chains of ascospores, its average length was 1.98 ± 20,268 μm, and the average width was 1.00 ± 11.454 μm.

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