Brown spot needle blight (BSNB), caused by the fungal pathogen Lecanosticta acicola, is a well-known disease of Pinus spp. in several northern hemisphere countries. In the southern hemisphere, this disease has been reported only in Colombia and, apart from a single report of severe defoliation of Pinus radiata plantations in the early 1980s, has not caused serious damage in this country. An outbreak of a disease resembling BSNB on Mesoamerican Pinus spp. grown in Colombia has raised concern that L. acicola may have reemerged as a pathogen. DNA sequence-based analyses for the internal transcribed spacers, translation elongation factor 1-α and RNA polymerase II second largest subunit regions showed that the outbreaks were caused by L. pharomachri, a species distinct from, but closely related to, L. acicola. The discovery of L. pharomachri in Colombia is the first incidence of the pathogen causing a serious disease problem and the first occurrence on the hosts P. patula and P. maximinoi. A sexual state for L. pharomachri was discovered for the first time, and the description of the species has thus been emended.
Keywords: Mycosphaerellaceae; fungi; needle blight; pathogen detection; pine disease; sexual state; tree health.