During November, 1978, The author collected leaves of Cassava (Manihot esculenta) Crantz severely infected by a leaf blight disease from a kitchen garden at Bareilly. On examination, the associated fungus was identified as Aspergillus niger Van Tieghem. This appears to be a new host-fungal association for India. The specimen has been deposited with the Department of Botany, K.S. Saket Post Graduate College, Faizabad under No. RSK-299.
The disease appears along the midrib of the leaves on the ventral side as irregular narrow light gray spots which enlarge with the advance of time. In one or two weeks, the colour of spots changes to light black due to heavy sprouting of the conidiophores and conidia, resulting in blighting and nacrosis along midrib of the lamina. In 3-4 weeks, the whole leaves gets involved and drops off. Both young and old leaves were equally infected by the fungus. The pathogenicity tests gave positive results and characteristic disease spots were artificially developed in 2-3 weeks.
Cite this as: Kanaujia R.S. (1979): Notes on an Unrecorded Fungal Disease of Manihot esculenta. Indian Phytopathology. 32(3): 464-465.
