<b>Diseases of Woody Ornamentals and Trees in Nurseries.</b> Edited by Ronald K. Jones and D. Michael Benson. 21·5 × 27·5 cm, 516 pp. St Paul, USA: American Phytopathological Society Press (http://www.scisoc.org), 2001. US$89. ISBN 089054 264 3 (paperback).

As I am attracted to woody ornamental plants and have studied some of their diseases I was interested to see what this book offered. Published by APS, in its usual style, and with 87 contributors assisting the editors Ronald K. Jones and D. Michael Benson, an attractively structured book is the result. One hundred chapters follow the Introduction and form sections on Abiotic and Biotic Causes of Disease, e.g. Fungi, Viruses, followed by General Diseases, e.g. Botrytis, Damping-Off, Phytophthora Root Rot and Dieback, and thereafter with Diseases of Specific Crops; (65 such crops are included), e.g. Ash, Azalea, Cotoneaster, Daphne, Dogwood, Holly, Lilac, Magnolia, Viburnum). The remaining 17 chapters deal succinctly (each a few pages in length) with general aspects relating to Disease Management, e.g. Sanitation, Fungicides, Recycling Irrigation Systems, Disease Diagnosis and Regulatory Control. Although this publication is a reference manual for US producers and retailers of woody ornamentals and trees and written by US university-based extension plant pathologists I probed some chapters on specific crops that have been of personal professional interest. In Chapter 42, on diseases of Forsythia, USDA zones of production are given together with species and common names. Four diseases, sclerotinia canker, stem gall, phytophthora root and crown rot and dieback, and pseudomonas blight are listed. Each disease has short entries on symptoms, epidemiology, host range and management. This is followed by a box figure listing disease frequency, severity, chemical treatment, cultural practices, sanitation and resistant cultivars each with rating on a score of 1–5 for the first two categories and 1–3 for the remaining four options for controlling the disease. Phomopsis stem gall interested me. Described only as a Phomopsis sp., it occurs more commonly in northern states whilst another gall forming species, Nectria pironii was confined to Florida. Phomopsis dominici occurs on forsythia galls in the UK, but is it causal or commensal? Ten diseases or pathogen groups are described in the chapter on roses. Downy mildew (Peronospora sparsa) appears to be more common and problematical than rust. In the former, the short paragraph on host range states ‘The pathogen is reported to be the same… that causes downy mildew of Rubus species’. Indeed, P. sparsa and P. rubi are conspecific. Phragmidium mucronatum is the only species of rose-rust mentioned although the situation in the UK is more complex involving P. tuberculatum on the hybrid groups of roses whilst P. mucronatum is economically important on species providing root stocks such as Rosa laxa. Finally, in the chapter on privet (Ligustrum) leaf spots caused by two Cercospora and a single Pseudocercospora species are listed. As in the other diseases mentioned above modification of taxonomy and host ranges of pathogens have progressed beyond descriptions in these particular chapters. Thus I suspect Pseudocercospora ligustri should now be called Thedgonia ligustrini. Whatever the name, heavy infection will cause extensive leaf abscission and bald hedges, at least in my garden! The book concludes with an appendix listing production of plants and occurrence of diseases in 26 States followed by a comprehensive glossary and index. Twenty-four pages of colour plates provide good quality photographs of 160 diseases. This book will be invaluable to horticulturalists in the USA and Canada but also of interest to extension plant pathologists outside North America and those charged with regulatory aspects of plant health inspection and certification.

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.