Dactylonectria L. Lombard & Crous, in Lombard et al., Phytopath. Mediterr. 53(3): 523 (2014)

The genus Dactylonectria was introduced by Lombard et al. (2014) for a group of species which were previously treated in Ilyonectria (Chaverri et al. 2011; Cabral et al. 2012a, b, c). In morphology, Dactylonectria resembles Ilyonectria and Neonectria but can be distinguished by their characteristic ovoid to obpyriform, smooth to finely warted, dark-red ascomata with a papillate ostiolar region at the apex (Lombard et al. 2014; Gordillo and Decock 2018). Species of this genus are mostly associated with Vitis sp., while some species are also recorded from other hosts (Farr and Rossman 2019).

Classification Sordariomycetes, Hypocreomycetidae, Hypocreales, Nectriaceae

Type speciesDactylonectria macrodidyma (Hallen, Schroers & Crous) L. Lombard & Crous, in Lombard et al., Phytopath. Mediterr. 53(3): 527 (2014)

Distribution – Worldwide

Disease symptoms – Black foot disease, black root rot

     Characteristic symptoms of black foot disease include a reduction in root biomass and root hairs with sunken and necrotic lesions (Hallen et al. 2006). Severe necrosis of the root system results in stunting, wilting, leaf chlorosis, browning and leaf drop prior to death (Parkinson et al. 2017). Dactylonectria alcacerensis, D. estremocensis, D. macrodidyma, D. novozelandica, D. pauciseptata, D. pinicola, D. torresensis, and D. vitis are associated with black foot disease of grapevine (Cabral et al. 2012a; Lombard et al. 2014).

HostsAbies sp., Annona cherimola, Anthrium sp., Arbutus unedo, Cistus albidus, Crataegus azalous, Erica melanthera, Eriobotrya japonica, Ficus sp., Fragaria sp., Hordeum vulgare, Ilex aquifolium, Juglans regia, Juniperus phoenicea, Lonicera sp., Myrtus communis, Persea americana, Picea glauca, Pinus sp., Pistacia lentiscus, Prunus domestica, Pyracantha sp., Quercus sp., Rosmarinus officinalis, Santolina chamaecyparissus and Vitis sp.