Comparative fungal profile of tea leaves from highland and lowland in Nigeria

A study to determine the fungal profile in leaves of both highland and lowland tea in Nigeria was performed. Healthy leaves were harvested from nineteen tea clones: T-14, T-19, T-33, T-35, T-61, T-68, T-74, T-108, T-143, T-228, T-229, T-236, T-238, T-318, T-354, T-355, T-367, T-368 and T-369 on the highland and lowland areas. Potato dextrose agar (PDA) was used as the growth medium to culture associated mycoflora from the tea leaves in five replications. The healthy tea leaves of the clones from the highland and the lowland areas show the presence of ten and six fungi respectively which include Pleurothecium recurvatum, Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus fumigatus, Itersonilia perplexans, Penicillium italicum, Lasiodiplodia theobromae, Trichordema viride, Rhizopus stolonifer and Botrytis cinerea. Clones T-369, T-14, T-108 and T-368 have the highest (4) mycoflora load found on the tea leaves but three were found associated with each of clones T-228, T-68 and T-236 on the highland. Only one fungus was isolated from each of the clones T-108, T-61, T-229 and T-318, two fungi from each of T-355, T-19 and T-236 while the highest mycoflora load on the lowland tea were found in clones T-368 and T-228.   Key words: Tea, two and a bud, clones, highland, lowland, mycoflora.