Pachysandra is new host for boxwood blight

Plant pathologists at The Connecticut Agricutural Experiment Station recently identified Pachysandra terminalis (pachysandra, Japanese spurge) as a new host of Cylindrocladium pseudonaviculatum, the fungus that causes boxwood blight.

Healthy pachysandra plants were inoculated with spores of C. pseudonaviculatum and lesions developed on the leaves ten days after inoculation.

Three weeks after inoculation, many of the leaves with lesions yellowed and dropped. Heavy sporulation of the fungus was observed.

This raises significant concerns about pachysandra as a potential source of inoculum for infection of boxwood and vice versa.

Go here for continued updates on boxwood blight: http://www.ct.gov/caes/cwp/view.asp?a=3756&q=500388&caesNav