D.F. CAMERON¹, M.J. D'A. CHARCHAR², C.D. FERNANDES³, S. KELEMU⁴ and S. CHAKRABORTY¹

¹CSIRO Tropical Agriculture, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia
²EMBRAPA-CPAC, Planaltina, Brasilia, Brazil
³EMBRAPA-CNPGC, Campo Grande, Brazil
⁴Tropical Forages Program, CIAT, Cali, Colombia

Abstract

A total of 72 accessions and cultivars of Stylosanthes scabra, S. guianensis, S. capitata and S. macrocephala were evaluated for their reaction to anthracnose (caused by Colletotrichum gloeosporioides) at 4 sites, 2 in Brazil and 2 in Colombia. Severe disease epidemics occurred at Planaltina (Brazil) and Carimagua (Colombia) but few accessions were damaged by disease at the other 2 sites.
A wide range of disease damage was recorded across accessions within species and there were pronounced site × accession interactions in the anthracnose reactions. S. guianensis cv. Mineirâo was outstanding for resistance at Planaltina, the site where disease was most severe. Control accessions of S. scabra showing strong resistance in Australia, cv. Seca and CPI 93116, also showed good resistance in Planaltina. Although the 20 bred lines of S. scabra were generally more damaged by anthracnose at Planaltina than in Australia, disease ratings at Southedge, Queensland, were a good predictor of the most resistant lines at Planaltina.