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Grey mould has been detected on Salicornia bigelovii Torr plants in nurseryand in the wild in north-west Mexico. Sampling of the grey mould wasperformed in the state of Sonora, Mexico, of wild as well as cultivatedS. bigelovii plants. The samples were isolated, and based on morphology,the species was identified as Botrytis cinerea Pers. Koch’s postulates werefulfilled by pathogenicity tests carried out in plated petri dishes onbranches from the 3-month-old potted S. bigelovii plants. To our knowl-edge, this is the first report of the isolation and identification of the fungalpathogen B. cinerea from S. bigelovii in the north-west Mexico.IntroductionThe halophyte plant Salicornia bigelovii is one of themost promising biotic resource candidates for exploi-tation and development economically in the semi-aridregions around the world (Ventura and Sagi 2013). Itsimportance lies on its ability to carry out agro-ecologi-cal recovery in areas degraded by salinity; producefodder, vegetable oils and flours; and has been foundto be applicable even in the cosmetics industry as wellas in construction (as pressed dry fibre) (Lu et al.2010). Arid climate and soil condition in Sonora, innorth-west Mexico, makes this region one of the mainproduction areas of S. bigelovii worldwide due to itshigh yield potential (Glenn et al. 1991). However, inthis area, there have been many problems with culti-vation due to phytopathological diseases of S. bigelovii.Diseased plants have been associated with the pres-ence of Botrytis cinerea, which causes a malady knownas grey mould. Diseased plants exhibit mummificationof inflorescences, dark lesions on the base of stem andbranch, as well as sporulation on leaf tissue, some-times causing mortalities over 30% of the populationsof not only wild plants but also commercial cultivars.Despite the presumptive use of synthetic fungicidesfor control of B. cinerea, the fungus proliferatesbecause it survives on dead leaves and other plant tis-sues as a component of phylloplane biota (Lerochet al. 2011). In Mexico, there are currently no pub-lished studies of the isolation and identification offungal pathogens of S. bigelovii plants.Materials and MethodsSample collection and isolationSampling was performed in the state of Sonora,Mexico, where wild plants of S. bigelovii were col-lected from four sites: 1) Santa Cruz, 2) Santa RosaGrande, 3) Santa Rosa Girl and 4) San Jorge, and cul-tivated ones were collected from two sites: 1) KinoViejo and 2) Cerro Prieto (Fig. 1). Area of this studyhad an average temperature of 32 2°C and a rela-tive humidity of 85 2%. Sampling was performedin zigzag, and the whole plants of S. bigelovii were col-lected displaying the presence of grey mould. Of theplants collected, samples were taken from branchsegments showing necrosis and total blight. They were |
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