First Report of Sclerotinia Rot of Shepherd’ Purse Caused by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum in Japan

Abstract

Leaf rot of Shepherd’s Purse occurred in a plastic greenhouse in Ibaraki Prefecture. The pathogen of this disease was identified as Sclerotinia sclerotiorum based on the pathogenicity, morphological characters and the sequence of the ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer (rDNA-ITS) region. I propose“Sclerotinia Rot”as the name for this new disease. This is the first report of this disease in Japan.