Occurrence of Peronospora sparsa (P. rubi) on cultivated and wild Rubus species in Finland and Sweden

An outbreak of a dryberry disease caused by Peronospora sparsa (syn. P. rubi) occurred in plantations of arctic bramble (Rubus arcticus subsp. arcticus) in Finland in the middle of 1990s. The disease persists and is most severe in cool and rainy summers. The disease has not been encountered in northern Sweden where cultivars (R. arcticus nothosubsp. stellarcticus) different from those in Finland are used. The occurrence of P. sparsa in wild Rubus spp. is virtually unknown in both areas and it is not known whether they constitute a potential infection source. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the occurrence of P. sparsa on wild Rubus spp. growing in the vicinity of cultivations of arctic bramble. Symptomatic plants were sampled in 1997–1999. P. sparsa was detected using a light microscope, preceded by incubation of the sample in vitro if necessary, and by a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based method. Plants of cultivated R. arcticus subsp. arcticus were commonly infected by P. sparsa in Finland. P. sparsa was also found on the cultivated R. arcticus nothosubsp. stellarcticus in Finland and Sweden. However, the infected plants of the cultivars of nothosubsp. stellarcticus seemed to be much less damaged than the cultivars of subsp. arcticus. Plants infected with P. sparsa were found in the populations of wild R. arcticus subsp. arcticus in both countries, and in cloudberry (R. chamaemorus) in natural habitats in Finland. In addition, P. sparsa was detected on specimens of R. arcticus subsp. arcticus (collected in 1966–1985) and R. chamaemorus (collected in 1899–1981) in Finnish herbaria. The samples of R. idaeus and R. saxatilis collected from the field in this study or investigated in the herbaria were not infected with P. sparsa. These data show that P. sparsa has not recently invaded Finland but has become an economically significant pathogen during the rapid expansion of cultivation of the apparently sensitive clones of arctic bramble.