Occurrence of Fungal Disease on Sweet Flag (Acorus calamus L. var. asiaticus) and It's Characterization

Occurrences of diseased sweet flag (Acorus calamus L. var. asiaticus) were found in Chonju and Buan Province, on August 2002. The typical symptoms of the disease affected the leaves, pods, and collar of the infected plants. The leaves or pods became darker brown, then dry rotted, and white fluffy mycelia formed on the lesion. The collar, of the infected plants, formed black spot. The spores grew rapidly on PDA medium. Pathogenic fungi have not been identified clearly, as of yet. These fungi were formed from developed spores, as well as, undeveloped spores. These fungi suggest that Fusarium sp. and Rhizoctonia sp.. The range of temperatures were tested from 5$^{\circ}C$ to 35$^{\circ}C$ for mycelial growth. The optimum temperature for growth was 3$0^{\circ}C$. This is the first report on the fungus disease of sweet flag by some pathogens, in Korea. We would like to do further research for single spore isolation, pathogenity, and characterization of fungi.