About Peronospora effusa

Peronospora farinosa is a plant pathogen. It causes downy mildew on leaves of wild and cultivated Amaranthaceae: Amaranthus, Atriplex, Bassia, Beta, Chenopodium, Halimione, Salsola, Spinacia, etc. In the past, the forms of Peronospora on these different genera, and their species, were given different species names, The pathogen persists as oospores in the soil, or on beet seed crops, or on overwintered volunteer beet plants. Attacks are most important at the seedling stage. The cotyledons are systemically infected, becoming discoloured and distorted. Loss of seedlings causes uneven crop development. Beet leaves are less affected, so a crop can to a substantial effect recover from an attack on seedlings. Control relies on adequate crop rotation and avoidance of sources of infection (e.g. adequate control of the disease on beet seed crops), as oospores survive only 2--3 years in the soil. Individual infected plants may also be removed. It is not generally necessary to apply fungicides.

Downy mildew has more direct importance on spinach (Spinacia oleracea), since it affects the harvested part (leaves). Yellow lesions appear on the older leaves. If rotating crops and removing individual infected plants fails, fungicide treatments are effective, and resistant cultivars are available.

(Text and image from Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia.)

Taxonomy ID 542832

Data source UC Davis Genome Center

More information and statistics