Identification Symptoms
- Die back of inflorescence is associated with low fruit set. About 60% of palms in the state of Karnataka, Kerala are infected by the disease causing severe shedding of buttons.
- Disease appears on the rachillae of the male flowers, then in the main rachis as brownish patches which soon spread from tip downwards covering the entire rachis causing it wilting. The female flowers of the infected rachis are shed.
- The fungus also infects the developing embryo inside the female flowers, which eventually shrivels up showing a brown discoloration.
- Under severe conditions the fungal infection proceeds from tip downwards producing the condition known as die-back.
- Concentric rings of light pink coloured conidial mass of the pathogen appear on the discolored portions of the infected inflorescence.