St. Paul, Minnesota
March 1, 2006
A destructive pathogen is
impacting Hawaii’s production of anthuriums, a plant known for
its heart-shaped flower and leaves, say plant pathologists with
The American Phytopathological
Society (APS).
Anthuriums’s
flower portion, or spathe, is available in a variety of colors
including brilliant shades of red, orange, pink, and salmon.
Although they originated in Central America, anthuriums are now
the most important cut flowers in the Hawaiian floriculture
industry, said Anne Alvarez, Department of Plant and
Environmental Protection Sciences, University of Hawaii,
Honolulu, HI. In 2004, Hawaii’s cut flower sales were valued at
$13.1 million, with anthuriums ranking as the top seller at $4.7
million. At the peak of production in the early 1980s, Hawaii
was supplying up to 232,000 dozen flowers per month to the
world.
Anthurium
production levels have been significantly reduced due to
bacterial blight caused by the bacterial pathogen Xanthomonas
axonopodis pv. dieffenbachiae. This disease was first reported
in Kauai, HI in 1971 but had little impact on the industry until
1981 when plants began to die in large numbers on farms in Hilo,
HI. “Once introduced into a new growing area, bacterial blight
may result in 50-100 percent loss of plants,” said Alvarez.
The disease
reached epidemic proportions during 1985-1989, destroying the
production of approximately 200 small farms existent in Hawaii
at the time. During the 1980s, Hawaii’s anthurium production
dropped from a record high of approximately 30 million stems to
15.6 million stems in 1990. Following implementation of an
integrated disease management program, losses were eventually
reduced to five percent or less, Alvarez said.
Various components
of an integrated disease management program for anthurium blight
include sanitation, disinfection of harvesting containers,
chemical sprays, modification of cultural practices, production
of pathogen-free planting stocks in vitro, use of resistant
cultivars, and biological control.
More information
on anthuriums is available on the APS website at
http://www.apsnet.org/online/feature/anthurium.
APS is a
non-profit, professional scientific organization. The research
of the organization’s 5,000 worldwide members advances the
understanding of the science of plant pathology and its
application to plant health. |