Die Bodenkultur - Journal for Land Management, Food and Environment

Z. Varga, B. Krautzer and W. Graiss:

Mycological investigations of seeds of cultivated grasses

Summary

Using two different methods, the authors made comparative seed-pathological investigations of the seeds of nine grass species cultivated in Austria. Together with the mapping of fungal genera occurring on grass seeds, they also tested changes of germination rates related to the rate of fungal infection. 31 fungal genera were identified on the seeds of Myxomycota, Ascomycota and Deuteromycota grasses. Saprophytic Alternaria, Epicoccum, Cladosporium, Stachybotrys genera were dominant among them, and plant pathogenics were also detected of the Bipolaris, Drechslera, Fusarium, Septoria and Ascochyta. Curvularia lunata, C. inaequalis Ulocladium botrytis, U. atrum, Pithomyces chartarum, Embellisia sp. and Septonema sp. genera from grass varieties not yet described. Key words:  Grass species, germination, fungal infection.