A HITHERTO-UNREPORTED DISEASE OF OKRA 
By L. L. Harter 
Pathologist , Cotton, Truck, and Forage Crop Disease Investigations, Bureau of Plant 
Industry , United States Department of Agriculture 
INTRODUCTION 
In the summer and fall of 1916 officials of the Office of Seed and Plant 
Introduction called the writer’s attention to a disease of okra pods 
[Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench.] found at the Yarrow (Maryland) 
Field Station of the Department of Agriculture. Later in the season 
material was brought in from the same place by Dr. B. T. Galloway, 
of the Bureau of Plant Industry, who reported considerable damage to 
the pods. In fact, the disease was so general and destructive that a 
comparatively small percentage of a full crop of healthy seed was har¬ 
vested. The seed from the 1916 crop was not used either for distribu¬ 
tion or for replanting, but a small amount of it was turned over to the 
writer for examination and experimental work. 
The seed from which the diseased plants were grown had come origi¬ 
nally from three different sources. One importation, SPI 1 27810, came 
originally from Erivan, Caucasus, Russia, in 1910, and was planted 
at Yarrow for the first time in 1913 and was grown there each succeed¬ 
ing year up to and including 1916. While a part of the original seed 
was sent elsewhere to be grown, none of the seed grown at these other 
places was brought to Yarrow. Another importation, SPI 34165, from 
Lucknow, India, was received in 1912 and grown at Yarrow from 1913 
to 1916. A third importation, SPI 41724, from Athens, Greece, was 
received in 1916 and grown there only one year (1916). 
It is possible that this disease was imported with the seed from Russia, 
India, or Greece, since no reports of such a disease have been found 
from Maryland. That it can be carried on the seed is evident, from the 
fact that the causal fungus was isolated several times from seed collected 
from diseased pods, both before and after surface disinfection. In 
1878 Cooke 3 describes a new species of Phoma, Phoma okra , on stems 
of okra collected by Ravenel in South Carolina. Similar material bear¬ 
ing a fungus attributed to the same species of Phoma was collected by 
Langlois in 1886 and again in 1887. The writer has examined Cooke’s 
type material of Phoma okra as well as the specimens, and no septate 
spores were found. 
In 1908 Barrus collected stems and pods of okra in the State of New 
York bearing a fungus which he identified as Phoma okra Cke. Some 
1 SPI “Office of Seed and Plant Introduction No. 
2 Cooke, M. C. north American fungi. In Hedwigia, Bd. 17, No. 3, p. 37-40. 1878. 
Journal of Agricultural Research, Vol. XIV, No. s 
Washington, D. C. July 29, 1918 
Key No. G-148 
00 
(207) 
