Boxwood blight: an ongoing threat to ornamental and native boxwood.

ABSTRACT: Boxwood blight is an emerging disease of ornamental and native boxwood plants in the family Buxaceae. First documented in the 1990s at a single location in England, the disease is now reported throughout Europe, Asia, New Zealand, and North America. To address the growing concern over boxwood blight, ongoing research focuses on multiple biological and genetic aspects of the causal pathogens and susceptible host plants. Characterization of genetic variation among the Calonectria fungi that cause boxwood blight shows that two unique sister species with different geographic distributions incite the disease. Studies of the pathogen life cycle show the formation of long-lived survival structures and that host infection is dependent on inoculum density, temperature, and humidity. Host range inve

SUBMITTER: LeBlanc N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5932091 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature