In June 1995, a disease causing round to irregular-shaped, water-soaked, brown to blackish brown spots on mealycup sage (Salvia farinacea Benth.) was found in Atsugi-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The symptoms were seen only on leaves, not on neither flower petals or stems. The disease was also found in Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, Memambetsu-cho, Hokkaido and Shimoda-shi and Matsuzaki-cho, Shizuoka. An Alternaria sp. was frequently isolated from these diseased plants. The isolates were severely pathogenic to mealycup sage and caused lesions on the inoculated leaves. The isolates were also weakly pathogenic on scarlet sage (S. splendens Sellow ex Roem. and Schult.) but not on any other Labiatae plants tested. Based on morphological characteristics, such as size of conidia, chain number, and the short beak on conidia, the causal fungus was identified as Alternaria alternata (Fr.) Keissler. This report is the first on a mealycup sage disease caused by A. alternata. Because the symptom was restricted to the leaf, the common name of Alternaria leaf spot was proposed.
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Received 30 August 2002/ Accepted in revised form 18 November 2002
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
NEGISHI, H., SUYAMA, K. Alternaria Leaf Spot on Mealycup Sage (Salvia farinacea Benth.) Caused by Alternaria alternata (Fr.) Keissler. J Gen Plant Pathol 68, 321–325 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/PL00013097
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/PL00013097