Citrus black spot caused by Phyllosticta citricarpa found on Valencia oranges in Botswana

Abstract

Citrus production in Botswana is a small but rapidly growing industry, mainly consisting of small-scale farmers, producing grapefruit, Eureka lemons, mandarins, and Valencia oranges for the local market. In 2022 Botswana joined the Citrus Growers' Association of Southern Africa, in part to improve access to international export markets. Accurate information about the status of pests associated with a commodity in an exporting country is needed to gain international market access. F I G U R E 1 Citrus black spot on Valencia oranges from Tuli block in Botswana: a) Symptoms on fruit; b) Phyllosticta citricarpa growing on potato dextrose agar; c) Phyllosticta citricarpa growing on oatmeal agar, forming a characteristic yellow halo This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.