Abstract

Natural stands of Cupressus sempervirens in Turkey are among the largest forests of this species in the world and are regarded as relicts of the centre of origin of var. horizontalis. In this study, we tested the pathogenicity of some of the most common fungal isolates originating from cankers on C. sempervirens by inoculating the isolates into the inner bark of C. sempervirensseedlings. The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of rDNA of the isolates was sequenced and compared with those in the GenBank. Among the isolates, eight ITS taxa were found. The isolates were inoculated into the inner bark of 2 year old C. sempervirens seedlings, on average 90 cm tall and 6 to 12 mm thick at the base. The seedlings were incubated seven weeks in a growth chamber at 70% mean relative humidity and 22.5°C mean temperature. The coaxial length of the lesion around the inoculation point on each seedling was measured. Among the eight ITS taxa Pestalotiopsis funerea, two other species of Pestalotiopsis, and two unidentified species belonging to the class Dothideomycetes caused lesions that were significantly larger than those in the controls while Fusarium sp., Cytospora sp. and an unidentified species belonging to Amphisphaeriaceae did not. In contrast to the Pestalotiopsis species, the two members of Dothideomycetes grew also into the sapwood of the seedlings.

Key words: Cupressus sempervirens var. horizontalis, canker, fungi.