Pictorial supplement to The Fifth Kingdom - Chapter 12

Fungal Plant Pathology   
(21 pictures)
(the CD-ROM has full text and 41 pictures)

Plant diseases - late blight of potato caused by Phytophthora infestans.

Plant diseases - downy mildew of grape, caused by Plasmopara viticola.

Plant diseases - chestnut blight canker, caused by Cryphonectria parasitica.

Plant diseases - uredinial stage of wheat rust, caused by Puccinia graminis tritici.

Plant diseases - southern corn blight, caused by Drechslera maydis.

Plant diseases - Dutch elm disease, caaused by Ophiostoma ulmi, in progress.

Plant diseases - Dutch elm disease - the aftermath.

Plant diseases -  blue mould of tobacco, caused by Peronospora tabacina.

Plant diseases - Monilinia, a necrotrophic parasite of pears, peaches and apples.

Plant diseases - wheat rust - vertical section of spermagonial (upper) and aecial (lower) stages of Puccinia graminis in a barberry leaf.

Plant diseases - apple scab -vertical section of Venturia teleomorph in dead apple leaf.

Plant diseases - smut diseases, such as the corn smut shown here, caused by Ustilago maydis, are usually seed-borne, then become systemic, causing hypertrophy and fruiting only when the next generation of seeds is produced (and therefore stealing the concentrated energy stored by the plant for its own reproduction).

Plant diseases - grey mould, caused by Botrytis cinerea, is a post-harvest disease.

Plant diseases - how wheat rust ruptures the host epidermis and causes water-loss.   Here, in the uredinial stage...

...and here, in the telial stage.

Plant diseases - anthracnose, or tissue necrosis, in beans, caused by Colletotrichum.

Plant diseases - coffee rust - leaf abscission in coffee, caused by Hemileia vastatrix.

Plant diseases - choke disease of grasses, caused by Epichloë, prevents the grass from producing seeds.

Plant diseases - penetration of the host plant.

Plant diseases - apple leaves infected by the Spilocaea anamorph of the apple scab fungus.  These infections release many conidia and spread the disease rapidly.

Plant diseases - protecting vines from a pathogen (downy mildew of grape) by spraying with copper-based fungicide (which colours the leaves blue).