Reprinted from Phytopathology, Vol. IV, No. 2, April, 1914 



THE IDENTITY OF THE ANTHRACNOSE OF GRASSES IN THE 



UNITED STATES 



Gtjy West Wilson 



A very common and wide-spread grass inhabiting fungus currently known 

 as Colletotrichum cereale Manns has frequently come to the attention of the 

 writer. That a species so wide-spread and so conspicuous should have 

 escaped the notice of taxonomists until within the last five or six years 

 has been the cause of considerable surprise. It was, therefore, with no 

 small interest that the collections at the New York Botanical Garden were 

 examined with a view to determining the true status of this species. After 

 a cursory examination of Saccardo's Sylloge and of this material it appeared 

 to be worth while to study the problem more seriously. In publishing 

 C. cereale the reference to past literature is embodied in the following 

 quotation: 1 "In the study of an organism such as this one, systematic 

 difficulties are met with. Systematic mycologists in the past have not 

 covered precisely all the points that prove to be essential in generic distinc- 

 tions. This has resulted in the description of certain organisms in such 

 a way as to be referable to any one of two or more genera. Such diffi- 

 culties are met in the genera Colletotrichum (Melanconieae), Vermicularia 



(Sphaeropsideae) and Chaetostroma (Hyphomyceteae) 



This anthracnose partakes more closely of the genus Colletotrichum, 

 hence the organism has been provisionally thrown into this genus and 

 given the name Colletotrichum cereale, n. sp. " 



The results of the studies of the available specimens of grass anthrac- 

 nose are given in detail under the various names under which the speci- 

 mens were found in the herbarium. 



1. Dicladium graminicolum Cesati 



This species, which is the type of a new genus, was described from 

 Vercelli, Italy, on stems of Echinochloa Crus-galli and Zea Mays. Cotype 

 material was exmained. The conidia and setae are the same as those of 

 Colletotrichum cereale, the former averaging about 20 x 4/jl, while the latter 

 are about llofj, long. No other material so named was seen. The species 

 was transferred by Saccardo to the genus Steirochaete. 



1 Selby and Manns, Ohio Agr. Expt. Sta. Bui. 203, pp. 206, 207. 1909. 



