Different species of Monilinia fungi can elicit fruit rot or brown rot and dry tip (also known as Monilia disease) in stone fruit. Among the most important pathogens are the three species Monilinia laxa, Monilinia fructigena, Monilinia fructicola. The first two species are naturally present in Europe. On the other hand, M. fructicola is regarded as an invasive species, and was first found in European stone fruit orchards 20 years ago. Because of their similar symptoms, the different species cannot be distinguished on the fruit tree and the various symptoms can not be assigned to individual species. Consequently, laboratory investigations are needed to permit a reliable identification of the individual species.
Large-scale monitoring
In order to determine which species of Monilinia are present in South Tyrol, in February of 2020, a total of 155 samples of fruit mummies of cherries, plums, peaches, almonds, and apricots were collected in the Venosta Valley, the district of Burggrafenamt, the Isarco Valley, Bozen/Bolzano, and in the district of Überetsch-Unterland (Fig. 1). Fruit mummies are especially well-suited for detecting Monilinia because here the pathogen survives the winter (Fig. 2). In the lab, the fruit mummies were shredded and studied using biomolecular methods to determine if the Monilinia fungus is present in the plant material and to which species it belongs.
