Symptoms and signs

Symptoms
• Symptoms of disease are the plant’s reaction to the
causal agent.
• Definition: An indication of disorder or disease,
especially when experienced by an individual as a
change from normal function
• Sensation, or appearance.

• Signs are the actual organisms causing the disease.

• Blight – A rapid
discoloration and death of
twigs, foliage, or flowers.

• Canker – Dead area on bark

or stem, often sunken or
raised.
• Chlorosis – Yellowing –
Chlorosis is so generic that
without additional details
diagnosis is impossible.

• Decline – Progressive
decrease in plant vigor.

• Dieback – Progressive
death of shoot, branch, or
root starting at the tip.
• Distortion – Malformed
plant tissue

• Gall or gall-like –
Abnormal localized
swelling or enlargement
of plant part.
• Gummosis –
Exudation of gum or sap.

• Leaf distortion – The leaf

could be twisted, cupped,
rolled, or otherwise
deformed.
• Leaf scorch – Burning
along the leaf margin and
into the leaf from the
margin.

• Leaf spot – A spot or

lesion on the leaf.
• Mosaic – Varying
patterns of light and
dark plant tissue

• Necrosis – Dead tissue –

Necrotic areas are also
so generic that without
additional details
diagnosis is impossible.
• Stunting – Slow
growth rate

• Wilt – General wilting

of the plant or plant
part.
• Witches broom –
Abnormal broom-like
growth of many weak
shoots.

• Insect feeding injury

is also a symptom
used in diagnosis, but
not a symptom of
disease.
• The damaged tissue does not necessarily contains
the organism causing the symptoms.
• For example, a root rot can cause chlorosis and
wilting of stems and leaves, but the disease causal
organism is in the roots.
• It is imperative to examine as much of the plant as
possible to determine exactly where the problem
is originating.
 Signs
• Signs are the actual
organisms causing the
disease.
Signs include:
• Conks – Woody reproductive
structures of fungi
• Fruiting bodies –
Reproductive structures of
fungi; could be in the form
of mushrooms, puffballs,
pycnidia, rusts, conks
• Mildew– Whitish growth
produced by fungi
composed of mycelium

• Mushrooms – Fleshy
reproductive structures
of fungi
• Mycelium – Thread-like
vegetative growth of fungi.

• Rhizomorphs – Shoestring-like
fungal threads found under the
bark of stressed and dying trees
caused by the Armillaria fungi.
They may glow!
• Slime Flux or Ooze – A bacterial
discharge that oozes out of the
plant tissues, may be gooey or a
dried mass.

• Spore masses – Masses of

spores, the “seeds” of a fungus

• Insects and/or their frass (excrement) are

also signs, although not signs of disease.
 Biotic Disease
Biotic causes of disease include
• Fungi
• Bacteria
• Viruses
• Phytoplasmas
• Nematodes
• Parasitic plants
Fungi
• Kingdom: Fungi
• Cell walls: Chitin
• No chlorophyll
• Saprophyte or
parasite
• Study of fungi:
Mycology
 Spore comes into contact with a susceptible
plant, it germinate and enter the host under
proper environmental conditions.
Hyphae develop from the germinated spore and
begin to
1. extract nutrients from host plant cells.
2. Secrete enzymes to break organic materials that
are ultimately absorbed through their cell walls.
• Fungi damage plants by killing cells and/or
causing plant stress.
• Fungi are spread by wind, water, soil, animals,
equipment, and in plant material.
• They enter plants through natural openings --
stomata, lenticels and wounds from pruning,
hail, and other mechanical damage.
• Fungi can also produce enzymes that break
down the cuticle (the outer protective covering
of plants).
• Fungi cause a variety of symptoms including
leaf spots, leaf curling, galls, rots, wilts, cankers,
and stem and root rots and “damping off”.
 Bacteria
• Bacteria are single-celled
microorganisms.
• No nucleus
• Reproduce by dividing
into two equal parts (fission). Fire blight on crabapple

• Bacteria function as either

 Parasites
 Saprophytes.
• Bacteria can infect all plant parts.
• Unlike fungi, bacteria must find a natural opening
for entry.
• Bacterial cells can move from one plant to
another in water, soil, and plant material, just as
fungi do.
• Bacterial pathogens are more dependent on
water.
• Require very wet and/or humid conditions
• Bacteria move between plant cells
• Secrete substances to degrade plant cell walls
• Produce enzymes that break down plant tissue,
creating soft rots or water-soaking.
• Like the fungi, bacteria cause symptoms such as
 Leaf blights and spots
 Galls
 Cankers
 Wilts and
 Stem rots.
• Bacterial leaf spots appear different from
fungal leaf spots due to their intercellular
movement.
• Veins often limit the development of a lesion,
so they appear angular or irregular, not round.

• It is difficult for beginners to tell fungal and

bacterial plant symptoms apart.
 Viruses
• Viruses are crystalline
particles composed of
nucleic acid (RNA or DNA)
• They are obligate
parasites
• Small virus particles can
be found in all plant parts
and cannot be seen
without an electron
microscope.
Mosaic virus on cucumbers
• The particles must be transmitted by vectors
• Through a wound.
• The vector is an insect, nematode, or human.
Insects and nematodes spread viruses
between plants as they feed on them.
• The feeding injury creates the necessary
wound. Usually, a plant virus is spread by only
one kind of insect vector.
• Aphids, leafhoppers, and thrips are examples
of virus vectors, but not all aphids,
leafhoppers, or thrips spread virus.
 Humans may spread plant viruses as they
• Work in the garden
• Mechanical abrasion from infected tools
• Touching and abrading plants with infected
hands
• Viruses overwinter in
o Infected perennial plants
o Insects
• Small portion of viruses is transmitted through
Seed
Vegetative propagation
• Viruses cause mottling,
spots, mosaic-like patterns,
crinkling, and other
malformations on leaves and
fruits, and may stunt plants.
Because viruses are
systemic, infected plants
must be rogued or discarded

Viruses are named according to the first plant on which

they were found and the type of symptom they cause
(i.e., cotton leaf curl virus, rose mosaic virus).
 Phytoplasmas
• Bacteria: however, they lack a cell wall and can take
on a variety of shapes.
• Obligate parasites
• Live in the phloem of host plants and are vectored
by certain phloem-feeding insects, such as
leafhoppers.
• This pathogen causes distortion, yellowing, wilting,
and “witches’ brooms”
• Immature leaf veins clear (vein-clearing”).
• Flower parts may become vegetative or produce
sterile seeds.
 Aster Yellows
• Damages > 300 species
of broad-leafed plants
• Commonly affected
flowering plants include
purple coneflower, cosmos, marigolds, asters,
Vegetables affected include carrots, lettuce, and
potatoes.
Weeds such as dandelion, plantain, wild lettuce
• Aster yellows is spread by the aster (or six-
spotted) leafhopper. These insects are small
(one-eighth inch long), gray-green, and
wedge-shaped. They are called leafhoppers
because they move or fly away quickly when
plants are disturbed.
• They feed only on plant sap (phloem tissue)
and generally on leaf undersides.
• Once a leafhopper feeds on an infected plant,
about 10 days to 3 weeks must elapse for the
insect to become infective.
• Plant symptoms appear 10 to 40 DPI.
• Dry weather can cause increased disease
occurrence in the home garden as leafhoppers
move from plants in prairies and pastures to
irrigated yards.
• Generally, aster yellows symptoms appear in
middle to late summer.
 Parasitic Plant
• More than 2,500 species of higher plants
• Parasitic plants produce flowers and
reproduce by seeds like other plants.
• The main difference is they cannot produce
their own chlorophyll or produce only a small
amount of chlorophyll.
• Parasitic plants are spread in various ways
including animals, wind, and forcible ejection
of their seeds.
• Dwarf mistletoe and dodder are two examples of parasitic plants

• Dwarf mistletoe has chlorophyll but no roots and depends on its host

for water and minerals, although it can produce carbohydrates in its

green stems and leaves.

• Dodder cannot produce its own chlorophyll and completely depends on

its host for sustenance.

• Plants damaged by parasitic plants appear wilted, stunted, distorted,

and chlorotic.

• Conifers, develop witches’ broom symptoms.

 Nematodes
• Nematodes are microscopic roundworms that
live in soil, water, and plant material.
• They have a spear-like stylet mouthpart

• Require free water to move about

• Reproduce by eggs.

• They spread in water, infected plant material,

soil, and in some cases, insects.
• Nematodes symptoms
Stunting, yellowing, and wilting of plant tissue.

Some infected plants simply appear unthrifty.

Some develop strange, knot-like growths on

their roots.
Many saprophytic and parasitic species exist.