Porroca: An Emerging Disease of Coconut in Central America

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Date

2008

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Abstract

Porroca is a lethal disease of coconut (Cocos nucifera) emerging in Central America. Previously known only from Colombia, it has spread rapidly across the Isthmus r-f Panama in the lasi decade.-Porroca is characterized by the production of stiff, dwarfed leaves, usually followed by the death of the palms within 2 years. We tijscribe the long-distance spread of the disease as determined from regular censuses of more than 200,000 coconut palms in the indigenous Comarca of Kim? Yala and the Republic of Panama. Spread is temporally and spatially variable, with the disease moving across the landscape as much as 40 km per year. Porroca may represent a significant new threat to coconut production in the Caribbean Region

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Keywords

emergent plant disease, little leaf, palm, phytoplasma, San Blas

Citation

America. Plant Dis. 92:826-830.

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