Nursery-grown rosy periwinkles (Catharanthus roseus) in Kerbala province, Iraq, showed severe symptoms of leaf blight. The causal agent associated with the diseased plants was identified as the fungus Alternaria alternata. This identification was based on the pathogen's morphological, molecular and pathogenic characteristics. To the best of the author's knowledge, leaf blight of rosy periwinkle caused by A. alternata is the first record in Iraq. Keywords Alternaria alternata. Leaf blight. Catharanthus roseus. rDNA-ITS. Iraq Catharanthus roseus, known as rosy periwinkle or Madagascar periwinkle, is an annual or perennial evergreen herbal plant that is native from Madagascar (Stearn 1975). Nowadays, it is cultivated globally, including in Iraq, for its therapeutic and ornamental attractive features. It has an ornamental aesthetic appearance related to its green variegation and prolific flowers in splendid colors (Nejat et al. 2015). The plant is also a source of pharmaceutical compounds such as terpenoid indole alkaloids including vincristine and vinblastine that have valuable antitumor properties (Aslam et al. 2010). Several phytopathogens have been reported to cause a variety of diseases on periwinkle plants worldwide. The majority of the fungal diseases recorded were root rot and damping-off incited by numerous fungi such as Rhizoctonia solani, Fusarium oxysporum, F. solani, Thielaviopsis sp., Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, Sclerotium rolfsii and Pythium aphanidermatum and foliar blight caused by Phytophthora parasitica, P. tropicalis, Colletotrichum dematium and Botrytis cinerea (Nejat et al. 2015; Ou-Yang and Wu 1998). However, there are no published studies relating to pathogens infecting periwinkle plants in Iraq. During the growing season 2015/ 2016, severe symptoms of foliar blight were observed on rosy periwinkle in one of the main ornamental nurseries in Kerbala province, Iraq. The