Researches about seed pathology of native forest species, especially, those more extensive, are rare. This
research aims to evaluate the health of Spanish-cedar seeds through two detection methods, to evaluate
the possible transmission of fungi associated to
Cedrela fissilis
seeds to seedlings and to evaluate the
pathogenicity of the fungus transmitted by
Cedrela fissilis seeds. For this, seeds from six different locations
from Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and Paraná states were used. The seeds were submitted to sanity
tests, by blotter-test and potato-dextrose-agar (PDA) methods, transmission by seeds to the seedlings and to the pathogenicity test of
Rhizoctonia
sp., chosen because it was common in sanity testing and transmitted
by seed. The fungi found in both of the methods were:
Pestalotia
sp.,
Rhizoctoniasp.,
Penicillium
sp.,
Phomopsis
sp.,
Rhizopus
sp.,
Aspergillus
sp. and
Fusarium
sp. Both tests can be used for the sanity test in
Cedrela fissilis seeds. The fungi transmitted by seeds to the seedlings were
Fusariumsp. and
Rhizoctonia
sp., both causing problems in roots and subsequent damping-off. One of the isolates of
Rhizoctonia sp. was
identified as pathogenic to seedlings, causing the same symptoms observed on transmission test.
