Symptoms and Signs of Phytophthora cinnamomi
P. cinnamomi is a ‘key threatening process' to Australia' s biodiversity, and over the last 50 years there has been considerable applied and fundamental research activity into the understanding of this pathogen and its control. Control has centered around hygiene, quarantine and more recently phosphite use.
The use of phosphite is definitely an effective management tool to reduce the impact and spread of P. cinnamomi in natural plant communities. This is particularly true in some of the phosphite target areas currently sprayed in the southwest Western Australia. These areas are infested with P. cinnamomi and contain susceptible species that are ‘critically endangered' as no populations or individuals are known to occur in non-infested vegetation, Banksia brownii is a good example. Without phosphite these species would disappear forever in their natural environment.