First Report of Black Leaf Spot Caused by Alternaria alternata on Ramie in China

In 2012 and 2013, black leaf spot disease was observed on ramie plants in Hunan and Hubei Provinces, China. In the field, the symptoms of this disease included dark green to black big spots on leaves, often resulting in upwardly curled leaf margins. The pathogen isolates were identified as Alternaria alternata (Fr.) Keissler on the basis of morphology and sequence similarity of 99-100% to the published data for internal transcribed spacer (ITS), and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (gdp). To our knowledge, this is the first report of Alternaria leaf spot of ramie in China.