Some notes on Phytophthora syringae and P. multivesiculata in Australia

In June 2008, Phytophthora syringae was baited from soil at the base of a dying pear tree in an orchard in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. Phytophthora syringae has been rarely reported in Australia. The identification was made using rDNA ITS sequence data. State checklists record P. syringae on Prunus in South Australia and on Pyrus in Victoria. Neither of these records is linked to cultures or herbarium specimens. The only preserved specimen of P. syringae in Australia is from Cymbidium collected in New South Wales in 1991, but this specimen has been re-identified as P. multivesiculata, a species not previously recorded in Australia. These two cultures appear to be the only verifiable records of P. syringae and P. multivesiculata in Australia. © 2009 Australasian Plant Pathology Society.