Abstract
One of the greatest threats to the native ecosystems in any part of the world is the invasion and permanent colonization of ecosystems by non-native species. Florida is no exception to this biological invasion, and is currently colonized by an extensive variety of exotic plant species. Originally imported from Asia over 30 years ago, Old World Climbing Fern Lygodium microphyllum (Cavanilles) R. Brown) has become one of the most invasive and destructive weeds in southern Florida. To date different effective control measures of its growth and spread have not been successful; fire and herbicide applications that are currently employed are neither cost effective nor environmentally friendly. In light of the highly delicate ecosystem that is being affected by L. microphyllum, we tested the soil fungus Myrothecium verrucaria (Albertini and Schwein) Ditmar: Fr. for its pathogenicity on the invasive fern. In greenhouse studies the effect of two conidial concentrations of M. verrucaria on L. microphyllum was investigated. Plants were spray inoculated with M. verrucaria which resulted in successful disease development with leaf necrosis symptoms. The higher conidial concentration (1 × 108 ml−1) produced a disease index of approximately 3 on a scale of 0 to 4, day 24 postinitial inoculation, demonstrating the efficacy of this fungus as a severe retardant of Lygodium growth. Preliminary screening of selected native plant species for susceptibility to M. verrucaria showed low disease indices after repeated spray inoculations; the highest index attained was 0.4 by Slash pine (Pinus elliottii).
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Acknowledgements
This research is dedicated in memory of our friend and research collaborator Michael R. Norland. We would like to thank Marnie Billie and Alyssa Jacobs of the Big Cypress Seminole reservation, Dennis Giardina of the Big Panther Refuge and David Black of the Dupuis State preserve for their assistance with collecting Lygodium samples. We also thank Jack Fisher of Fairchild’s Tropical Botanical Gardens for his generous donation of native plants used throughout this study, Michael Lott (Florida Atlantic University) and Min Rayamajhi (USDA-ARS) for their assistance in plant identification, sampling techniques and sourcing information during the initial stages of research and Alan Meerow (USDA-ARS) and Min Rayamajhi for␣their review of this paper. Southeast Environmental Research Contribution Number 325.
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Clarke, T.C., Shetty, K.G., Jayachandran, K. et al. Myrothecium verrucaria – a potential biological control agent for the invasive ‘old world climbing fern’ (Lygodium microphyllum). BioControl 52, 399–411 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-006-9035-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-006-9035-3