A new report of rhizome rot of Sweet flag (Acorus calamus L.) caused by Sclerotium rolfsii from West Bengal, India

Abstract

Acorus calamus L. is an important medicinal plant commonly known as ‘Sweet flag’ or ‘Bach’ and generally distributed in temperate countries like, North America, Canada and Europe. The plant is found throughout in India, predominantly in Himalayan and sub Himalayan regions. The rhizome rot of Sweet flag was observed in a field experiment conducted with five cultivars, viz., Aihagaripalli, Gaddipalli, Munipalli, Nagireddigudem and Symbolia in the year of 2015 in the medicinal garden, Kalyani, Nadia, West Bengal, India. The disease caused by Sclerotium rolfsii Sacc. was recorded for the first time in India. Symptoms of the disease, morphology of the pathogen and incidence were studied in details. The disease incidence was observed on all the cultivars and the maximum was on Aihagaripalli (10.12%) followed by Symbolia (8.49%) and Nagireddigudem (6.19%) and the minimum was on Munipalli (3.99%).