BOTRYTIS ROT OF THE GLOBE ARTICHOKE 1 
By George K. K. Link, Pathologist , Glen B. Ramsey, Associate Pathologist , 
and Alice A. Bailey, Junior Pathologist , Office of Cotton , Truck , and Forage 
Crop Disease Investigations , Bureau of Plant Industry , United States Department 
of Agriculture 
INTRODUCTION 
Gray mold rot causes heavy losses 
in practically all truck-crop shipments 
made during the cooler months of the 
year, especially from California. Cross¬ 
inoculation experiments have indicated 
that the strains of Botrytis sp. affecting 
the Globe artichoke ( Cynara scolymus 
L.) are pathogenic to those vegetables 
subject to decay from the Botrytis 
usually called B. cinerea Pers. 
In their survey of plant diseases as 
they occur on the market, Link and 
Gardner 2 reported gray mold rot 
(.Botrytis spp.) as the only disease 
affecting the buds of the Globe arti¬ 
choke in transit and on the market. 
The disease has been observed in 
the United States wherever artichokes 
have been examined. Practically all 
the artichokes marketed in this coun¬ 
try are grown in Contra Costa and 
San Mateo Counties, Calif., mostly on 
the rich loams and clay loams of the 
narrow strip along the seashore from 
Montara to Pescadero; some are 
grown also in the canyons extending 
from the seashore into the mountains. 
The buds are shipped in refrigerator, 
freight, and express cars to eastern 
markets, 50 per cent of the total ship¬ 
ments going in 1922 to New York. 
The economic importance of the 
Botrytis rot of the artichoke is sug¬ 
gested by abstracts which the plant 
disease survey made of inspection 
certificates issued by the food pro¬ 
ducts inspection service of the Bureau 
of Agricultural Economics. Although 
the inspection service does not examine 
all cars arriving terminal in markets, 
the abstracts of inspections made show 
the artichoke to be affected by only 
one rot, which is practically the only 
cause of loss in transit. Ninety-six 
per cent of the car-lot inspections made 
during 1918 to 1923 report losses of 2 
to 100 per cent due to Botrytis, the 
remainder being due to freezing. 
About 10 per cent of the inspections 
show losses of 50 per cent and over; 
20 per cent show loses of 20 per cent 
and over; 70 per cent show losses of 
less than 20 per cent. These losses 
are considerable since the market price 
of a car (470 to 480 boxes) is $1,800 to 
$2,500, depending upon market con¬ 
ditions, with a freight and icing 
charge of about $375 from California 
to Chicago. The presence of even 
slight decay necessitates expensive 
resorting and considerable loss to 
wholesalers and retailers. Severely 
affected buds are a total loss, although 
slightly affected ones can be sold at a 
reduced price. 
Inquiries from receivers, carriers, 
and food products inspectors of the 
Bureau of Agricultural Economics in 
1919 to 1922 have shown a prevalent 
supposition that the serious losses on 
artichoke shipments were mainly at¬ 
tributable to freezing injury and chill¬ 
ing. There were consequent mutual re ■ 
criminations among growers, shippers, 
carriers, and receivers, each believing 
some other responsible for the occur¬ 
rence of such injury. None had 
realized that the great losses in transit 
might be connected with the presence 
in the field of a certain fungus. 
Reduction of such wastage and loss 
in transit, with fixing of the responsi¬ 
bility for these, calls for definite 
knowledge concerning the source and 
mode of contamination, the time, place, 
and manner of infection, and the devel¬ 
opment and spread of the disease. As 
there were no experimental data ade¬ 
quate for formulating control measures 
and placing responsibility for losses in 
vegetables from this source, the arti¬ 
choke was chosen for investigation of 
the disease, on account of certain 
advantages which it affords for type 
1 Received for publication Feb. 28,1924—issued January, I9z5. Paper from the Cooperative Laboratory 
for the Investigation of Market and Transit Diseases of Vegetables and Fruits, the U. S. Department of 
Agriculture and the University of Chicago cooperating. 
2 Link, G. K. K., and Gardner, M. W. market pathology and market diseases of vegetables. 
Phytopathology 9: 497-520. 1919. 
Link, G. K. K., Ramsey, G. B., and Bailey, A. A. botrytis rot of the globe artichoke (cynara 
scolymus l.). (Abstract.) Phytopathology 13: 58. 1923. 
Journal of Agricultural Research, 
Washington, D. C. 
( 85 ) 
Vol. XXIX. No. 2 
July 15, 1924 
Key No. G-4C3 
