Dollar Spot Severity and The Effect Of The Epichloae Endophyte Presence In Hard Fescue (Festuca brevipila).

Hard fescue (Festuca brevipila R. Tracey) is a cool-season turfgrass species that is popular in low maintenance situations due to their dense dark green color, low fertility requirement and tolerance to heat and drought.  Some hard fescues contain the fungal endophyte, Epichloe festucea, which has been reported to confer disease resistance in other fine fescue species.  Dollar spot, caused by the fungus Sclerotinia homeocarpa, is a common problematic disease in turfgrass especially those managed under low fertility.  In low maintenance situations, fungicide applications to control the disease are not realistic. Genetic resistance or endophyte-mediated resistance would greatly improve quality of hard fescue under low maintenance.   Although, dollar spot resistance levels in hard fescue can vary greatly, inheritance of resistance is not well understood.   Several resistant and susceptible progenies of hard fescue progenies were tested for the presence of endophyte. The progeny that tested positive for the presence of endophyte had an average dollar spot rating of 8.4 for years 2010-12 based on a 1-9 scale (where one is disease susceptible and nine is disease resistant) while the progenies that tested negative for the endophyte had an average dollar spot rating of 3.9. These samples are very similar genetically so it is likely that this resistance to dollar spot is mediated by the presence of the endophyte. This is the first report of endophyte mediated dollar spot resistance in hard fescue but further research is needed to confirm this association.