Serious damage by Diplodia africana on Pinus pinea in the Vesuvius National Park (Campania Region, Southern Italy)

In some municipalities, located within the boundaries of the Vesuvius National Park (Campania Region, southern Italy), several area with forest cover of Pinus pinea showed severe withering of the crowns and damage to pine cones. In the present study, we have isolated in the period May 2013 – May 2014 from Ercolano, San Sebastiano, Terzigno, Torre del Greco and Trecase an anamorphic form of Botryosphaeriaceae. The latter cause dieback and serious canker on several woody plants, including species of Pinus. Morphological and cultural characteristics as well as DNA sequence data (5.8S rDNA, ITS-1 and ITS-4) were made on 30 isolates obtained from 5 municipalities. All strains belonged to only two species: Botryosphaeria dothidea and its anamorph, Diplodia africana. These two fungi were present on all pine cones collected and analyzed. Finally we carried out growth assays at different temperatures: 8 °C, 18 °C and 28 °C. All fungi found the optimum of growth at 28 °C while at 8 °C we noted the lowest growth. This seems to be the first report of D. africana on Pinus species in Campania Region. Riassunto: