First Comprehensive Report on the Occurrence of Various Fungal Diseases in Seabuckthorn from Uttarakhand, India

Abstract

Seabuckthorn is a general term given to the deciduous shrub tree Hippophae Linn. It is one of the most magical plant resources with higher value of economy and ecology. It is also known as “wonder plant” due to its multifarious benefits. Therefore, seabuckthorn should serve as a measure to safeguard medicinal and nutritional plants, to conserve biodiversity and environment and to generate sustainable income source for local people. Diseases and insects are the major factors affecting the success of seabuckthorn cultivation. Control measures depend on proper identification of diseases and their causal agents. Proper disease diagnosis is therefore vital as without proper identification of the disease and the disease causing agent, disease control measures are waste of time and money and can lead to further plant losses. Despite although there are a few reports available regarding the pathological aspect of Hippophae spp. in India, but there is no systematic study on distribution and severity of diseases occurring on Hippophae salicifolia D. Don in Uttarakhand. Hence, a systematic study was undertaken on the occurrence of diseases on Seabuckthorn plant which are responsible for negatively affecting the yield and quality of a magical plant of Indian Himalayan Region.