Olivo

Neofusicoccum mediterraneum

Associated with branch die-back and leaf tip-blight symptoms on Eucalyptus sp. on the Island of Rhodes, and drupe rot of Olea europaea in Italy. Conidiomata amphigenous, pycnidioid, stromatic, brown, up to 450 µm diam in culture (sporulating on sterilized pine needles); ostiolate, exuding conidia in a white mucoid mass; wall consisting of 3–5 layers of brown textura angularis. Conidiophores lining the inner layer of the conidioma, hyaline, smooth, 0–1-septate, 15–40 × 3–5 µm. Conidiogenous cells integrated, phialidic, subcylindrical, rarely ampulliform, 15–30 × 3–5 µm; proliferating several times percurrently near apex, rarely with minute periclinal thickening. Conidia hyaline, smooth, thin-walled, fusoid-ellipsoidal, widest in the middle or in the upper third, apex subobtuse, base subtruncate, somewhat flattened with minute marginal frill, (19–)22–26(–27) × (5.5–)6(–6.5) µm in vitro (av. 24 × 6 µm; L:W = 4:1), with granular cytoplasm.