In winter glasshouse crops of tomatoes in the Auckland area it can be of importance. It occurs as a wound pathogen on stem injuries due to "lateraling". It may also cause a fruit rot of outdoor grown tomatoes. It occurs on tubers and haulms of potatoes but is only of minor importance.

Type: Foliicolous Fungi; Description: Conidiomata pycnidial, solitary or in scattered groups, subepidermal becoming erumpent, globose, brown, 0.2–0.3 mm in diameter, ostiolate; on leaf spots and on necrotic tissue of other plant parts. Conidia ellipsoid to cylindrical, straight or slightly curved, 0-septate, becoming 1-septate, 5–10 × 2–4 μm, smooth, often bi-guttulate, hyaline.

Distribution: Northland, Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Wanganui, Wellington, Gisborne, Hawkes Bay, Nelson, Buller, Kaikoura, Mid Canterbury.; 1st Record: Hamilton (1947: as Ascochyta sp.).

Significance: The cause of a leaf spot of minor importance in poplar (Spiers 1976). It is of some significance as a wound pathogen and as a storage rot organism in horticultural crops (Dingley 1969).; Host(s): Actinidia chinensis, A. deliciosa, Casimiroa edulis, Cyphomandra betacea, Eucalyptus erythrocorys, Garrya elliptica, Hedera helix, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, Humulus lupulus, Meryta sinclairii, Nephrolepis cordifolia, Nerium oleander, Populus alba, P. ×canadensis, P. deltoides, P. maximowiczii, P. nigra, Rosmarinus officinalis.

REPRESENTATIVE CULTURES: PDDCC 6611, 6621.

COLONY MORPHOLOGY OA: Colonies 30-90 mm diam. after 7 days. Mycelium; cottony, dense, unevenly tufted, ragged, pale to dark grey or olivaceous. Large clumps of dark pycnidia may be scattered over the colony surface. Reverse; grey. ME: Colonies 30-90 mm. Mycelium; sparse, dark grey or olivaceous, with dark purple-black agar surface visible. Edge of colony deeply scalloped. Reverse; black with a narrow clear margin. Addition of a drop of 1N NaOH to the agar at the edge of the colony produces a green pigment which turns red after a few minutes: CHLAMYDOSPORES: None. CONIDIA: Variable in shape, oblong to elliptic or often irregular, in some isolates may often be 1-septate. (4.5-)6-8(-10) x 2-3 µm. PYCNIDIA: Solitary or in scattered large groups with adjacent pycnidia having confluent walls; dark walled.

OCCURRENCE: Common, plurivorous saprophyte or weak wound pathogen.

NOTE: The growth rate varies greatly between isolates, as does the intensity of the NaOH colour reaction.