No abstract

Plantation forests are established by planting <i>Eucalyptus</i> tree species to provide timber and pulp for the construction industries and to meet the energy needs in Ethiopia. Besides the extensive <i>Eucalyptus</i> plantations in the country, fungal pathogen-related diseases are the main challenges to successful production and management. The disease survey was conducted in the <i>Eucalyptus</i> growing areas of Ethiopia during 2019/2020 and 2020/2021. The objective of this research was to assess the diseases associated with <i>Eucalyptus</i> plant species and identify the causal fungal species. Plants of <i>E. camaldulensis</i> were the dominant species in the survey fields and were severely associated with stem and branch canker diseases. Diseased samples were collected and fungal species were identified as <i>Didymellaceae</i> according to culture morphology and affirmed by internal transcribed spacer sequence analysis. In phylogeny, isolates in the study and a reference strain formed supportive monophyletic clades with strong 90% and 95% support with <i>Didymella coffeae-arabicae</i> and <i>Didymella pinodella</i> respectively. Pathogenicity tests revealed that <i>Didymellaceae</i> could infect <i>E. camaldulensis</i>. The findings are the first reports of <i>Eucalyptus</i> stem canker disease caused by <i>Didymellaceae</i> in Ethiopia.

No abstract

No abstract