Occurence of Phomopsis Sp. on Achillea Millefolium

Throughout many years of studying mycopopulation of weeds, we have found fungi of the Diaporthe/ Phomopsis complex interesting to research. After years of examining plants of Achillea millefolium L., some of them exhibited symptoms of infection typical for Diaporthe/Phomopsis species. A. millefolium was usually found in uncultivated, pasture and forest flora, but also in or nearby sunflower fields. Previous studies confirmed that many fungi known to cause diseases of cultivated plants had weeds as alternative hosts (Boland and Hall, 1994, Jurković et al., 2001, Vajna, 2002, Vrandečić et al., 2005, Ćosić et al., 2006). As sunflower and A. millefolium belong to the same botanical family (Asteraceae) we intended to determine which Diaporthe/Phomopsis species occurred on A. millefolium and whether there was a connection between Phomopsis spp. that infected these two hosts. The experiments were carried out within the project that aimed to determine the role of weeds in the epidemiology of cultivated plant diseases.