Morphotypes of Ciborinia camelliae Kohn infecting camellias in Italy

Ciborinia camelliae Kohn is the causal agent of camellia flower blight. The pathogen infects only flowers of camellias, causing serious damage to the plant. Seventy-one strains were collected from six Italian regions and were characterized at the phenotypic and genetic level. Morphotypes were identified based on their phenotypic differences in culture media. The Italian population consisted of eleven morphotypes. Internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions of twenty-two isolates belonging to the different morphotypes were sequenced. All morphotypes have identical ITS sequences. The closest match of the ITS with the strain ICMP 19812 of Ciborinia camelliae from New Zealand (Massey University Arboretum, Palmerston North, 100% sequence identity), and the morphological features confirmed the presence of a variable population of C. camelliae in six different Italian regions.